"Any friends here—have you any friends here?"
"Neither here nor elsewhere." She made that bleak declaration simply, as if he had suggested her possession of green diamonds. Her tone made friendship a myth.
He felt again utterly free of the restraints and little hesitancies usual in situations of this nature.
"And your means, resources. Any, Mrs. Brace?"
"None—except my daughter's."
He was unaccountably restless. Putting the knife into his pocket, he stood up, went to the window. His guess had been correct. The courtyard below was as he had pictured it. He stood there at least a full minute.
Turning suddenly in the hope of catching some new expression on her face, he found her gazing steadily, as if in revery, at the opposite wall.
"One thing more, Mrs. Brace: did you know your daughter intended to go to Sloanehurst last night?"
"No."