Before Lady Lydiard could speak again, Mr. Troy discreetly interfered. He saw plainly that his experience was required to lead the investigation in the right direction.
“Pardon me, my Lady,” he said, with that happy mixture of the positive and the polite in his manner, of which lawyers alone possess the secret. “There is only one way of arriving at the truth in painful matters of this sort. We must begin at the beginning. May I venture to ask your Ladyship a question?”
Lady Lydiard felt the composing influence of Mr. Troy. “I am at your disposal, sir,” she said, quietly.
“Are you absolutely certain that you inclosed the bank-note in the letter?” the lawyer asked.
“I certainly believe I inclosed it,” Lady Lydiard answered. “But I was so alarmed at the time by the sudden illness of my dog, that I do not feel justified in speaking positively.”
“Was anybody in the room with your Ladyship when you put the inclosure in the letter--as you believe?”
“_I_ was in the room,” said Moody. “I can swear that I saw her Ladyship put the bank-note in the letter, and the letter in the envelope.”
“No, sir. Her Ladyship was called away into the next room to the dog, before she could seal the envelope.”
Mr. Troy addressed himself once more to Lady Lydiard. “Did your Ladyship take the letter into the next room with you?”
“I was too much alarmed to think of it, Mr. Troy. I left it here, on the table.”
“How long were you absent in the other room?”
“Ha!” said Mr. Troy to himself. “This complicates it a little.” He reflected for a while, and then turned again to Moody. “Did any of the servants know of this bank-note being in her Ladyship’s possession?”
“Are there any workmen employed in the house?”
“Do you know of any persons who had access to the room while Lady Lydiard was absent from it?”
“Her Ladyship’s nephew, Mr. Felix Sweetsir, and the Honorable Alfred Hardyman.”
Mr. Troy shook his head irritably. “I am not speaking of gentlemen of high position and repute,” he said. “It’s absurd even to mention Mr. Sweetsir and Mr. Hardyman. My question related to strangers who might have obtained access to the drawing-room--people calling, with her Ladyship’s sanction, for subscriptions, for instance; or people calling with articles of dress or ornament to be submitted to her Ladyship’s inspection.”