“Sit down,” said Pelham. He held out his hand and drew her back to her seat close to his side. “I have not quite told you all. Sit close to me, Barbara. We must talk of this in whispers.”
Barbara drew nearer to her husband. The balcony at this moment was absolutely deserted.
“Do you remember what happened immediately after Piers’s death?”
“What do you mean? Of course, I remember everything.”
“I allude to the night when the coffin was brought home.”
Barbara gave a slight shudder.
“I was in the house then,” she said. “Mrs. Pelham was very ill. It is true Nurse Hester had arrived, but I liked to be with Mrs. Pelham, and she was glad to have me.”
“On the night the coffin was brought in, two days before the funeral, I called very late to see you.”
“Yes, I had gone to bed. The servant told me of your visit in the morning.”
“I arrived between eleven and twelve at night. I rang the bell, and the footman came to answer the door. He told me that all the household had gone to bed, and that he had got up to answer my summons. I said I should like to come in, as I wanted to verify something in the library. I said I would let myself out presently, and that he need not stay up. Of course, he treated me just like one of the family.