That evening Rodney Elmore was at a dinner given at a famous restaurant in honour of his engagement to Stella Austin, quite a different sort of meal from that at which he had assisted at the Misses Claughton's house in Kensington. If in his manner there was an unusual touch of nervousness, it was not unbecoming; the bride that was to be was not entirely herself. He met her as, with her father and mother, she entered the hall. She said to him, as he fell in by her side:
"I did hope, Rodney, that you would have come to fetch me."
"My dear, it's only by the skin of my teeth that I've got here myself! Do you think that I wouldn't have come if I could?"
She said nothing in reply, but as she passed towards the ladies' cloak-room there was a look on her face which almost suggested tears. Her mother's manner, as she greeted him, was not too genial:
"So you are here? Well, I suppose that's something!"
Mr. Austin, as he deposited his hat and coat with the attendant, seemed very much in the same key.
"We should have been here some minutes ago, only Stella would have it you were coming to fetch her; we should have been waiting for you still if she had had her way. How was it you didn't come? She's quite disappointed; rather a pity that the evening should have begun with a misunderstanding of that sort."
"I take it, Mr. Austin, that you haven't heard the news?"
"It is now stated that my uncle did not commit suicide, but was murdered."
"But I thought the coroner's jury had returned a verdict of suicide."
"That is so; but this afternoon a man named Parker gave himself up to the police, on his own confession, as having murdered my uncle. You will understand that I--I have had rather a trying day."
"On his confession? Is the man a lunatic?"
"That's just it; he is, yet it seems only too likely that--he did what he says he did."
"But how came he to make his confession in your presence? Do you know the man?"
"Not I; he's an entire stranger to me; but I'll tell you all about it later. I don't want you to say anything to the ladies or anyone; I only mention it to you because I want you to understand how it is that I am not in such--such good fettle as I might be for an occasion of this kind; and also because I want you, if needs be, to help me with Stella."