"Did you switch off the light in the hall?"
"I may have done. I do not remember."
"So late a visitor surprised you, of course?"
"Only because the master was to be in the house so short a time. He has a great deal to do with professional people, so we often get late visitors—after the theaters are over. The mistress——"
She stopped. There was the soft purring of a motor at the front door, and a moment later the sharp ring of a bell.
"That is the mistress," she said.
The door was opened, and a woman came in swiftly, young, beautiful, and, even in her agitated movements, full of grace.
"Tell me! Tell me!" she said, turning toward Quarles and myself, as if a man's strength were necessary to her just then. Quarles told her with a gentleness which I had not often seen in him.
"I must see him," she said.
We tried to dissuade her, but she insisted, so we went with her. The dead man lay on a sofa, a handkerchief over his face. His wife lifted the covering herself and for a moment stood motionless. Then she swayed and would have fallen had I not caught her. My touch seemed to strengthen her, and, with a low cry, she rushed out of the room.