“The wretch—the wretch! What punishment would be too great for the monster who did that deed?” cried Clare, with something akin to passion in her voice.
“Mr. Westwood told you of it?” said Agnes.
“He did not need to tell me of it,” replied the girl. “I had read all about it at Cairo.”
“Of course. You got the English newspapers there.”
“Very rarely; strange to say, a copy of a newspaper containing a paragraph referring to the reprieve of the murderer was sent to my mother by some one in England. I saw the paper by chance. It had not been sent to her because of that paragraph, of course; but on account of some other piece of news.”
“Then you knew who it was that sent the paper?”
“That was the mystery. It troubled mother for some time thinking who could have sent it.”
“But she knew why it had been sent to her—she knew what was the particular paragraph it contained of interest to her?”
“I don't think that she was quite certain on that point; but she came to the conclusion that it was on account of a paragraph referring to the production of an opera in London in which a friend of mine—of ours, I mean—had taken the tenor rôle.”
“Ah; a friend of yours? What is his name?”