“And she told you?”
“She told me.”
“You wish to know, Doctor Allday, what discoveries Miss Emily may yet make, among her aunt’s papers. Judge for yourself, when I tell you that she has been deceived about her father’s death.”
“Do you mean that he is still living?”
“I mean that she has been deceived—purposely deceived—about the manner of his death.”
“Who was the wretch who did it?”
“You are wronging the dead, sir! The truth can only have been concealed out of the purest motives of love and pity. I don’t desire to disguise the conclusion at which I have arrived after what I have heard from yourself. The person responsible must be Miss Emily’s aunt—and the old servant must have been in her confidence. Remember! You are bound in honor not to repeat to any living creature what I have just said.”
The doctor followed Miss Jethro to the door. “You have not yet told me,” he said, “how her father died.”
“I have no more to tell you.”
With those words she left him.