"Of course I never thought of you for an instant as the man until that afternoon when you talked in your sleep. Then I began to think and I remembered what Carfax had said about your hating him. Then I went with your dog for a walk and we found your matchbox. After that I noticed all sorts of things and, at the same time, I saw that you were in love with Margaret. That made me mad. My sister is everything in the world to me, and it seemed to me that--she should marry a fellow who . . . without knowing! I began to be ill with it and yet I hadn't any real reasons to bring forward. You wanted me to show my cards, but I wouldn't. Sometimes I thought I really _was_ going mad. Then two things made me desperate. I saw that you had some secret understanding with my mother and I saw--that my sister loved you. We'd always been tremendous pals--we three, and it seemed as though every one were siding against me. I saw Margaret marrying you and mother letting her--although she knew . . . it was awful--Hell!"
He pressed his hands together, his voice shook: "I'd never been in anything before--no kind of trouble--and now it seemed to put me right on one side. I couldn't see straight. One moment I hated you, then I admired you, and the oddest thing of all was that I didn't think about the actual thing--your having killed Carfax--at all; everything else was so much more important. I just wanted to be sure that you'd done it and then--for you to go away and never see any of us again."
"But it wasn't until the 5th of November--the 'rag' night--that I was quite sure. I knew then, when I saw you hitting that fellow, that you'd killed Carfax. But, of course, that wasn't proof. Then I noticed Bunning. I saw that he was always with you, and of course it was an odd sort of friendship for you to have; I could see, too, that he'd got something on his mind. I went for him--it was all easy enough--and at last he broke down. Then I'd got you----"
Rupert looked him, slowly, in the face. "You're wonderful!" Then he added, almost wistfully, "If Margaret hadn't loved you it wouldn't really any of it have mattered. I suppose that's very immoral, but that's what it comes to. Margaret's everything in the world to me and you must tell her."