“I shall have to give that girl a piece of my mind,” said Mrs. Stevens.  “Well, Elsie?”

“He said, I heard him say it with my own ears, ’It’s my turn now,’ he said, triumphant-like.”

“Well, if you think that’s a threat, dear, you’re very particular, I must say.”

But Audrey remembered Elsie’s words when she was in front of Inspector Birch.  She gave her own evidence with the readiness of one who had already repeated it several times, and was examined and cross-examined by the Inspector with considerable skill.  The temptation to say, “Never mind about what you said to him,” was strong, but he resisted it, knowing that in this way he would discover best what he said to her.  By this time both his words and the looks he gave her were getting their full value from Audrey, but the general meaning of them seemed to be well-established.

“Then you didn’t see Mr. Mark at all.”

“No, sir; he must have come in before and gone up to his room.  Or come in by the front door, likely enough, while I was going out by the back.”

“Yes.  Well, I think that’s all that I want to know, thank you very much.  Now what about the other servants?”

“Elsie heard the master and Mr. Robert talking together,” said Audrey eagerly.  “He was saying—­Mr. Mark, I mean—­”

“Ah!  Well, I think Elsie had better tell me that herself.  Who is Elsie, by the way?”

“One of the housemaids.  Shall I send her to you, sir?”

“Please.”

Elsie was not sorry to get the message.  It interrupted a few remarks from Mrs. Stevens about Elsie’s conduct that afternoon which were (Elsie thought) much better interrupted.  In Mrs. Stevens’ opinion any crime committed that afternoon in the office was as nothing to the double crime committed by the unhappy Elsie.

For Elsie realized too late that she would have done better to have said nothing about her presence in the hall that afternoon.  She was bad at concealing the truth and Mrs. Stevens was good at discovering it.  Elsie knew perfectly well that she had no business to come down the front stairs, and it was no excuse to say that she happened to come out of Miss Norris’ room just at the head of the stairs, and didn’t think it would matter, as there was nobody in the hall, and what was she doing anyhow in Miss Norris’ room at that time?  Returning a magazine?  Lent by Miss Norris, might she ask?  Well, not exactly lent.  Really, Elsie!—­and this in a respectable house!  In vain for poor Elsie to plead that a story by her favourite author was advertised on the cover, with a picture of the villain falling over the cliff.  “That’s where you’ll go to, my girl, if you aren’t careful,” said Mrs. Stevens firmly.

But, of course, there was no need to confess all these crimes to Inspector Birch.  All that interested him was that she was passing through the hall, and heard voices in the office.