"But what has Louisa Sinclair to do with Mrs. Hilliston?"
"Can't you guess? Miss Pike showed me a portrait of Louisa Sinclair taken twenty-five years ago. I did not then wonder at Mrs. Bezel's start, or that Hilliston had refrained from letting her see the picture of his wife. In a word, Louisa Sinclair and Mrs. Hilliston are one and the same woman."
"Ah!" cried Claude, with a sudden recollection, "it was for that she was so afraid of your going to Horriston."
"Yes. She thought I might learn too much. This is the beginning of the end, Claude."
"What! Do you think Mrs. Hilliston knows anything of the case?"
"According to your mother she knows a good deal. According to Miss Pike she is in possession of certain facts. Yes, I think Mrs. Hilliston can help us if she will."
"But, my dear Tait," said Claude quietly, "Mrs. Hilliston is an American."
"Ah! Louisa Sinclair went to America, and probably became a naturalized subject of the Stars and Stripes."
"But," objected Larcher, "she was a widow when she married Hilliston."
"So I believe. A Mrs. Derrick. No doubt she came by all her money through that first marriage. Oh, I can put the puzzle easily together. No wonder Hilliston wanted the case dropped, both on his own account and on that of his wife."
"What do you mean, Tait? Do you suspect that----"
"Say no more," said Tait, rising, "I will tell you what I mean after you have seen Paynton. But then," added he significantly, "I don't think you will need any explanation."
THE next morning Claude received a second letter from Hilliston, stating that as his wife was ill he would be unable to come over to Thorston, but directing the young man to go to Rose Cottage at noon, when Mr. Paynton would be ready to receive him. Tait regretted that he had not been included in the invitation, and carefully instructed Claude how to act during the interview.
"I believe Paynton can settle the matter," were his parting words, "so put love out of your head for the time being, and do your best to extract the truth."
Anxious to oblige one who took so much interest in his private affairs, Larcher promised to do what he could, and shortly after eleven started for Rose Cottage. As a matter of fact, he need not have gone so soon, but he did so in the hope of meeting with Jenny. Well acquainted as he was with her movements, his surmise proved correct, for he met the young lady at the end of Nightingale Lane. She blushed, and expressed surprise at the meeting. But such feigning is part of love's comedy.