When the door had closed and Mr. Gryce found himself for the first time alone with Mrs. Taylor, he drew up a chair to her side and remarked in his old benevolent way: 

“I feel guilty of cruelty, madam, in repeating a question you have already answered.  But the conditions are such that I must, and do it now.  When this young lady fell so unexpectedly at your feet, was your first look at her or at the opposite gallery?”

For an instant her eyes held his—­something which did not often happen to him.

“At her,” she vehemently declared.  “I never thought of looking anywhere else.  I saw her at my feet, and fell on my knees at her side.  Who wouldn’t have done so!  Who would have seen anything but that arrow—­that arrow!  Oh, it was terrible!  Do not make me recall it.  I have sorrows enough——­”

“Mrs. Taylor, you have my utmost sympathy.  But you must realize how important it is for me to make sure that you saw nothing in the place from which that arrow was sent which would help us to locate the author of this accident.  The flitting of an escaping figure up or down the opposite gallery, even a stir in the great tapestry confronting you from that far-away wall, might give us a clue.”

“I saw nothing,” she replied coldly but with extreme firmness, “nothing but that lifeless child and the picture of desolation which rose in my own mind.  Do not, I pray, make me speak again of that.  It would sound like delirium, and it is my wish to impress you with my sanity, so that you will allow me to go home.”

“You shall go, after the Coroner has had an opportunity to see you.  We expect him any moment.  Meanwhile, you will facilitate your release and greatly help us in what we have to do, if you will carry your fortitude to the point of showing me in your own person just where you were standing when this young girl dashed by you to her death.”

“Do you mean for me to go back to that—­that——­”

“Yes, Mrs. Taylor.  Surely you can do so if you will.  When you have time to think, you will be as anxious as ourselves to know through whose carelessness (to call it nothing worse) this child came to her death.  Though it may prove to be quite immaterial whether you stood in one place or another at that fatal moment, it is a question which will be sure to come up at the inquest.  That you may be able to answer correctly I urge you to return with me to the exact spot, before your recollection of the same has had time to fade.  After that we will go below and I will see that you are taken to some quiet place where you can remain undisturbed till the Coroner comes.”

Had she been a weak woman she would have succumbed again at this.  But she was a strong one, and after the first moment of recoil she rose tremulously to her feet and signified her willingness to follow him to the scene of death.

“Is—­is she there alone?” was her sole question as they crossed the corridor separating the room they had been in from the galleries.