"That is not the truth," she flung back with a sudden awakening from the kind of stupor which up till now had overcome her. "I never wore that gold scarf for the simple reason I did not possess one at that time. I was never near Cheyne Court. If you say you saw me, you are saying what is absolutely untrue. And there is another thing, since you are so sure that I was responsible for that horrible deed, what were you doing at Cheyne Court that night at all?"
Gunga Dall's answer to Lady Brenton's question was given so quickly, even as Cleek himself echoed the thought in his own mind, that he might well have been forgiven in believing that it had been prepared beforehand.
"I followed you, my dear lady——"
"Followed me?" she repeated. "From where, pray? Oh, this is intolerable!"
"I saw you as I turned into the lane and I rather wondered, as was only natural, what you were doing at that unearthly hour and place."
"So I should think," responded Lady Brenton with a little sniff of disdain; "the same might apply to you, Mr. Dall."
That gentleman laughed softly.
"I came to see if I could speak to Lady Margaret Cheyne," he replied, "you must remember I had met her previously in Paris."
"I do remember, only too plainly, and how you gave me no peace till I had introduced you, but that is no reason why you should call upon her at night, after she had had a long journey. Besides, how did you know she was expected home? I hardly knew myself till quite late and by a chance word overheard from Miss Cheyne herself in the post office. How did you come to hear of it?"