"You have finished, Mr. Deland— Mr. Narkom? I may go now?"
"In one more moment, Lady Paula. There is simply the matter of the will now to be thrashed out before you disperse and leave us to work out the problem as best we may. You have, no doubt, put it away, Mr. Duggan? I didn't see it here when I investigated early this morning."
"I've done nothing of the sort, Mr. Deland."
"Oh!—-is that so? I beg you pardon. Then perhaps you, Miss Duggan?"
"Certainly not. I've never laid a finger upon it!" returned she, with a shake of the head and amazement written all over her countenance. "I've never thought about it again from that moment to this! Why, of course it must have been upon the table when—when poor Father met his—death. He was just about to alter the name when the light went out."
"Then you were using the electric switch last night instead of the customary lamp, I take it?"
"Yes. Father did use it at intervals, and I suppose in this case he thought it better for seeing with. For it was certainly on. A lamp could never have failed as that light did, Mr. Deland. No doubt it would have been better if we had not used the electricity, for the dreadful thing could never have taken place then, could it?"
"And so we must put that down to Ross, and lay the whole blame upon him, at any rate!" snapped out Lady Paula in an angry voice; and Cleek thought, for a woman so shortly bereft, she was singularly well recovered from the shock—if it had ever been one in the first instance. "For if he had not installed this dreadful thing, then surely, surely my poor, poor husband would never have met with his death at all!'
"Oh, have done with your nagging, Paula!" responded Ross irritably as she ceased speaking.
And Cleek obtained silence simply by stepping into the breach himself.