"Was there ever any quarrel between your father and your husband, prior to your leaving America?"
"Never any downright quarrel," said the girl. "But I am sorry to say they were not always the best of friends. In those days my father was a very difficult man to get on with."
"Indeed?" said Klimo. "Now, perhaps you had better proceed with your story."
"To do that, I must explain that at the end of January of this present year, my father, who was then in Chicago, sent us a cablegram to say he was leaving for England that very day, and that, upon his arrival in England, if we had no objection, he would like to take up his residence with us. He was to sail from New York on the Saturday following, and, as you know, the passage takes six days or thereabouts. Arriving in England he came to London and put up at our house in Bellamer Street, Bloomsbury. That was during the first week in February last, and off and on he has been living with us ever since."
"Have you any idea what brought him to England?"
"Not the least," she answered deliberately, after a few seconds' pause, which Klimo did not fail to notice.
"Did he do business with any one that you are aware of?"
"I cannot say. On several occasions he went away for a week at a time into the Midlands, but what took him there I have no possible idea. On the last occasion he left us on the fifteenth of last month, and returned on the ninth of this, the same day that my husband was called away to Marseilles on important banking business. It was easy to see that he was not well. He was feverish, and within a short time of my getting him to bed he began to wander in his mind, declaring over and over again that he bitterly repented some action he had taken, and that if he could once consider himself safe again would be quit of the whole thing forever.
"For close upon a fortnight I continued to nurse him, until he was so far recovered as to recognize me once more. The day that he did so I took in at the door this cablegram, from which I may perhaps date the business that has brought me to you."
She took a paper from her pocket and handed it to Klimo, who glanced at it, examined the post-mark and the date, and then placed it upon the desk before him It was from Chicago, and ran as follows: