"Well," thought the detective, "here is a pretty kettle of fish right in one family."
"Madam, are you sure you have made a discovery?"
"Yes, I have other evidences. What I learned yesterday was only confirmatory."
"I see you are disposed to trust me."
"Yes."
"Let me say for myself that your confidence is not displaced, and if you have reason to believe that your niece is in love with a criminal, and if we prove the man to be a criminal, I will aid you in removing the human toy beyond her reach. I will send him up to the gallows."
"Well, now, you are assuming that he is a murderer."
"I have every reason to believe that he is, and I think the evidence can be secured to convict him; but why should he seek to marry your niece?"
"He knows she is an heiress—yes, a great heiress. She is heir to millions, and will have the money in her own right without any restraint upon her use or misuse of it whatever."
"When?"