"Well! I suppose she did," said Stephen.
"If you knew her you would know that that is impossible."
Stephen looked incredulous.
"I've known a good many unlikely things happen about money," he said slowly. "I daresay she did it to save her brother."
"She did not do it," said Anne.
"If she didn't, why doesn't she say what she did burn, and why? What's the use of sticking to it that she burned nothing when Brand knows that's a lie? A lie is a deadly stupid thing unless it's uncommonly well done."
"She has had very little practice in lying. I fancy this is her first."
"The only possible course left for her to take is to admit that she burned something, and to say what it was. Why doesn't she see that?"
"Because she is a stupid woman, and she does not see the consequences of her insane denial, and the conclusions that must inevitably be drawn from it. When the room was examined, ashes were found in the grate that had been paper."