Jessica bowed.
“But how did you come to be in this box?” she asked, looking up at them from where she sat.
“I must apologize for our having intruded, Mrs. Robertson,” Preston said, “but how it happened was this,” and he went on to explain how he and Blenkiron, noticing that the masked man sitting alone in her box appeared to be unwell, had obtained admittance to the box.
“That was most kind of you,” Jessica said when he stopped speaking. “But really this news is too terrible. I can’t realize it. Poor Levi! And he seemed so well to-night, and in such excellent spirits.”
She stopped abruptly.
“I wonder who it was sent in to see him early in the evening?” she said after a pause. “He seemed put out when he came back, and didn’t volunteer to tell anybody what was amiss, so of course I couldn’t ask him. But he got all right again a little later.”
“That would hardly have any bearing on the cause of death, Mrs. Robertson.”
It was Johnson who spoke. He was looking hard at her through the holes in his mask. Apparently through forgetfulness he had not taken it off.
“No, of course it wouldn’t,” Jessica answered mechanically. Her thoughts seemed to be far away. “Tell me, Doctor Johnson,” she said suddenly, in a different tone, “to what cause do you attribute his sudden death?”
“At first I attributed it to natural causes, but afterwards I changed my opinion,” he replied in measured tones.