"No, dear Mrs. Picture, nor any of us. But if she had been as bad as the worst, she could hardly have deserved what came about. I told you she had married a bad man, and I am going to tell you how bad he was." It was as well that Gwen should rouse her hearer's attention by a sure and effective expedient, for it was flagging slightly. Dave's other Granny's sister's misadventures seemed to have so little to do with the recent mystery of the mill-model. But a genuine bad man enthrals us all.
"What did he do?" said his unconscious widow.
"He forged a letter to his own wife, saying that her sister was dead, and she believed it."
"But did her sister never write, to say she was alive?"
"Old Mrs. Marrable? No—because she received a letter at the same time saying that her sister.... You see which I mean?..."
"Oh yes—the bad man's wife, who was abroad."
"... Was also dead. Do you think you see how it was? He told each sister the other was dead."
"Oh, I see that! But did they both believe it?"
"Both believed it."
"Then did Mrs. Marrable's sister die without knowing?"