“I’m afraid there have been many things of which you have known nothing, Maclean.” Instinctively he lowered his voice: “To my mind, Garlett, who has been starved so long of all natural human emotion, fell in love with your niece at first sight. No doubt the girl was unaware of it for quite a long time. But you’re not going to tell me that last winter, when she first became secretary to his company, Garlett didn’t see enough of her to have a hundred opportunities of finding out how far more attractive she was than his wife?”
Dr. Maclean remained silent. With a feeling of sick dismay he realized that what the other man said was only too true.
“In a way, for all his jolly, open manner, Garlett was a secretive chap,” went on Mr. Toogood. “I’ve been his lawyer ever since he married, but he’s never talked to me about his private affairs, or consulted me in any way. As a matter of fact Mrs. Garlett was far more businesslike. She knew what she wanted; I always enjoyed a talk with her.” He smiled rather ruefully. “There were no flies on poor Emily——”
“But you must admit,” chipped in the doctor, “that she was never jealous; in that she wasn’t at all true to type, if I may say so.”
“You’re right there!” exclaimed the lawyer. “She simply worshipped that man. Nothing was too good for him. And yet—and yet, there was always something spinsterish about her, eh, Maclean?”
Dr. Maclean nodded: “I know what you mean. It was that which accounted for Garlett’s attitude to the poor soul. His attitude was much more that of a kind and attentive nephew than that of a husband—still, he didn’t seem to mind.”
“Rubbish—stuff! Of course he minded! You and I have met here to-day to look facts in the face. To throw that still young man with an exceedingly attractive, and, I’m told, lively, intelligent girl, was just tempting providence.”
“It’s done every day—in all the business offices in the world,” said the doctor defensively.
Mr. Toogood began toying with some of the papers on his table.
“I’ll tell you one thing I heard last night,” he observed without looking up, “in the bar of the King’s Head Hotel, as a matter of fact. It was asserted that within a week of Mrs. Garlett’s death your niece received by post an anonymous gift of a most beautiful diamond ring. If the purchase of that ring can be traced to Garlett, it will produce a very unpleasant impression at the trial.”