Mrs. Everett opened the door to him, with no sign of fear or embarrassment. From the expression of her eyes, her hostility was too great to permit of her harbouring any other emotion. What line should he take with her? The stern official one would be useless both from the point of impressing her and from the point of extracting information; the dead man had done well to call her Lady Macbeth. And a magnanimous overlooking of the part she had played in Lamont's escape would also have no effect. Flattery would earn nothing but her scorn. It occurred to him that the only method of dealing with her to any ad-vantage was to tell her the truth.
"Mrs. Everett," he said, when she had led him in, "we have a case that will hang Gerald Lamont, but I'm not satisfied myself with the evidence. So far, I haven't caught Lamont out in a misstatement, and there is just the faintest possibility that his story is true. But no jury will believe it. It is a very thin tale, and, told badly in a court of law, would be beyond belief. But I feel that a little more information will tip the scales one way or another — either prove Lamont's guilt beyond a doubt or acquit him. So I've come to you. If he's innocent, then the chances are that the extra information will go to prove that, and not his guilt. And so I've come to you for the information."
She examined him in silence, trying to read his motive through the camouflage of his words.
"I've told you the truth," he said, "and you can take it or leave it. It isn't any softness for Gerald Lamont that has brought me here, I assure you. It's a matter of my own professional pride. If there's any possibility of a mistake, then I've got to worry at the case until I'm sure I've got the right man."
"'What do you want to know?" she said, and it sounded like a capitulation. At least it was a compromise.
"In the first place, what letters habitually came for Sorrell, and where did they come from?"
"He got very few letters altogether. He had not many friends on these terms."
"Did you ever know letters addressed in a woman's hand come for him?"
"Yes; occasionally."
"Where were they posted?"