“How dull!” she murmured.

“That document,” he went on, “was purloined by Anthony Palliser from the safe in my study.  It was either upon him when he disappeared, or he disposed of it on the afternoon of my arrival to a political opponent of mine—­James Miller.”

“I had so hoped there was a lady in the case,” she yawned.

“If you will give me your attention for one moment longer,” he begged, “it will be all I ask.  I want you to tell me, first of all, whether James Miller called at the Manor that afternoon and saw Palliser, whether any one called who might have been helping him, or—­”

“Well?”

“Whether you have heard anything of Palliser since his disappearance?”

She looked at him hardly.

“You have brought me here to answer these questions?”

“Pardon me,” he reminded her, “your coming was entirely your own idea.”

“But why should you expect that I should give you information?” she demanded.  “You refused to give me the thing I wanted more than anything in life and you have thrown me off like an old glove.  If you are threatened with what you call political ruin, why on earth should I intervene to prevent it?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“You take a severe and I venture to believe a prejudiced view of the situation between us,” he replied.  “I never promised you that I would make you a peeress.  Such a thing never entered into my head.  Every pledge I made to you when we were married, I kept.  You cannot say the same.”

“The man’s point of view, I suppose,” she scoffed.  “Well, I’ll tell you what I know, in exchange for a little piece of information from you, which is—­what do you know about Anthony Palliser’s disappearance?”

He was silent for several moments.  The frown on his forehead deepened.

“Your very question,” he observed, “answers one of the queries which have been troubling me.”

“I have no objection to telling you,” she said, “that since that night I have neither seen nor heard of Palliser.”

“What happened that night was simple,” Tallente explained calmly; “perhaps you would call it primitive.  You left the room.  I beckoned Palliser to follow me outside.  The car was still in the avenue and the servants were taking my luggage in.  The spot where we stood on the terrace, too, was exactly underneath your window.  I took him by the arm and I led him along the little path towards the cliff.  When we came to the open space by the wall, I let him go.  I asked him if he had anything to say.  He had nothing.  I thrashed him.”

“You bully!”

Tallente raised his eyebrows.

“Palliser was twenty years younger than I and of at least equal build and strength,” he said.  “It was not my fault that he seemed unable to defend himself.”

“But his disappearance—­tell me about that?”

“We were within a few feet of the edge of the cliff.  I struck him harder, Perhaps, than I had intended, and he went over.  I stood there and hooked down, but I could see nothing.  I heard the crashing of some bushes, and after that—­silence.  I even called out to him, but there was no reply.  Some time later, Robert and I searched the cliff and the bay below for his body.  We discovered nothing.”