"Was it Sir Karl?"
"Well now that's a odd thing!" she broke forth at last. "Miss Blake asked me the very same question, sir--was it Sir Karl Andinnian?"
"Oh, did she. When?"
"When we had been talking of the thing in your rooms, sir--that time that I had been a dressing of your hand. In going down stairs, somebody pulled me, all mysterious like, into the Reverend Cattakin's parlour: I found it was Miss Blake, and she began asking me what the gentleman looked like and whether it was not Sir Karl."
"And was it Sir Karl?"
"Being took by surprise in that way," went on Mrs. Chaffen, disregarding the question, "I answered Miss Blake that I had not had enough time to notice the gentleman and could not say whether he was like Sir Karl or not. Not having reflected upon it then, I spoke promiscuous, you see sir, on the spur of the moment."
"And was it Sir Karl?" repeated Mr. Strange. "Now that you have had time to reflect upon it, is that the conclusion you come to?"
"No, sir; just the opposite. A minute or two afterwards, if I'd only waited, I could have told Miss Blake that it was not Sir Karl. I couldn't say who it was, but 'twas not him."
This assertion was so contrary to the theory Mr. Strange had been privately establishing that it took him somewhat by surprise.
"Why are you enabled to say surely it was not Sir Karl?" he questioned, laughing lightly, as if the matter amused him.