“I thought so,” he said to himself; “he says the writings are not identical, that they have not been written by the same person. Miss Annie little knows what a trap she has got into. She is just here in the nick of time. Yes, I will see her; I will get the whole naked truth out of her. Guilty! of course she is guilty. After she has made her confession she shall come with me to the Gilroys. What an old, blind fool I have been. How could I ever doubt a girl with a face like Leslie’s?”
He stood up as he spoke. The expert’s letter had pleased him; but he could not but own that he felt nearly as puzzled as ever.
“Bless me if I know what it means even now,” he said anxiously to himself.
The puzzled man was standing on his hearth. His hair was wildly rubbed over his head, and his eyes looked fiercer than Annie had ever seen them when she entered the room.
“Well, Miss Colchester,” he said, “may I ask what is the meaning of this visit? It so happens that I am
anxious to see you, and should have called upon you if you had not come to me. But, as a rule, I do not see people on private business in my office.”
“I have come to speak to you about Leslie Gilroy,” said Annie. “You are fond of Leslie?”
“It does not matter to you whether I care for her or not. What have you got to say about her?”
“Only that she is quite innocent,” said Annie. “She never wrote that letter.”
Mr. Parker’s face wore an ugly sneer.