‘Mrs. Carnaby?  I don’t know.  I was going to say,’ Dymes pursued, ’that the story Mrs. S. has been telling seems to me very clumsy, and that’s why I don’t think the other has any hand in it.  She seemed to have forgotten that Redgrave’s housekeeper, who was wanted by the police, wasn’t likely to put herself in Carnaby’s way —­ the man she had robbed.  I pointed that out, but she only laughed.  “We’re not bound to believe,” she said, “all that Carnaby said on his trial."’

‘We are not,’ Alma remarked, with a hard smile.

‘You think he dressed things up a bit?’

‘I think,’ answered Alma, ‘that he may have known more than he told.’

’That’s my idea, too.  But never mind; whatever the truth may be, that woman is doing you a serious injury.  I felt you ought to know about it.  People have talked about you a good deal, wondering why on earth you dropped out of sight so suddenly after that splendid start; and it was only natural they should connect your name with the Carnaby affair, knowing, as so many did, that you were a friend of theirs, and of Redgrave too.’

‘I knew Mr. Redgrave,’ said Alma, ‘but I was no friend of his.’

Dymes peered at her.

‘Didn’t he interest himself a good deal in your business?’

‘Not more than many other people.’

‘Well, I’m very glad to hear that,’ said Dymes, looking about the room.  ’I tell you, honestly, that whenever I have a chance of speaking up for you, I shall do it.’

’I am very much obliged, but I really don’t think it matters what is said of me.  I am not likely ever to meet the people who talk about such things.’

She said it in so convincing a tone that Dymes looked at her gravely.

‘I never know any one change so much,’ he observed.  ’Is it really your health?  No other reason for giving up such magnificent chances?’

‘Of course, I have my reasons.  They concern nobody but myself.’

’I might give a guess, I dare say.  Well, you’re the best judge, and we won’t say any more about that.  But look here —­ about Mrs. S. and her scandal.  I feel sure, as I said, that she’s toadying to Mrs. Carnaby, and expects to make her gain out of it somehow.  Her husband’s a loafing, gambling fellow, and I shouldn’t wonder if he gave her the skip.  Most likely she’ll have to live by her wits, and we know what that means in a woman of her kind.  She’ll be more or less dangerous to everybody that’s worth blackmailing.’

‘You think she had —­ she was dependent in some way upon Mr. Redgrave?’ asked Alma, in an undertone.

’I’ve heard so.  Shall I tell you what a woman said who is very likely to know?  Long ago, in the time of her first marriage, she got hold of something about him that would have made a furious scandal, and he had to pay for her silence.  All gossip; but there’s generally a foundation for that kind of thing.  If it’s true, no doubt she has been at his relatives since his death.  It doesn’t look as if they were disposed to be bled.  Perhaps they turned the tables on her.  She has looked sour and disappointed enough for a long time.’