"No. He refused any details, but made certain suggestions as to the course I should pursue."
"That sounds interesting. What did he suggest?"
I hesitated for a few moments. Then reflecting that the stranger was evidently under the observation of the police, and that the latter were trying to bring poor Reggie's assassin to justice, I resolved to reveal all that had passed between us.
Therefore I gave a brief outline of our conversation just as I have written it in the foregoing pages. Both detectives, at hearing my story, seemed very much puzzled.
"You will pardon my intrusion," exclaimed the agent of police who had first spoken to me, "but as you will see, this is a clue which must be thoroughly investigated. Will mademoiselle forgive me for asking whether there is any truth in this man's surmise that she is about to become engaged to marry this Monsieur Keppel?"
"None whatever," I answered frankly. "I can only suppose that some unfounded gossip has arisen, as it so often does, and that it has reached his ears."
"Yet he threatens—or at least warns you of peril if you should become the wife of this wealthy monsieur! Ah! there seems to be some very deep motive; what it really is, we must seek to discover. When we have found it we shall have, I feel confident, a clue to the murderer of Monsieur Thorne."
"But there is still another rather curious fact," I went on, now determined to conceal nothing. "He declared that it was necessary for my well-being that I should return to London, and there meet some person who would visit me on the 2nd of June next."
"Ah! And you intend keeping that appointment, I presume?"
"I intend to do nothing of the kind, monsieur," I replied, with a laugh. "The affair is a very ugly one, and I have no desire whatever that my name should be linked further with it."