“From whom?”

“From my Aunt Emilia.”

“I scarcely think that.  You were but a child when she died.”

“She did not die,” said Maraquito coldly.  “I have come to tell you that she lived as Miss Loach at Rose Cottage.”

Caranby started to his feet.  “What is this you tell me?”

“The truth.  Emilia is dead now, but she lived alone for many a long day.  I knew that Selina Loach was my aunt, and,” Maraquito looked at him with piercing eyes, “Mrs. Octagon knew also.”

By this time Caranby had recovered from his emotion.  “There is nothing bad I don’t expect to hear of Isabella Octagon,” he said, “so this then was why she visited you?”

“Yes.  I ordered her to come by threatening to reveal what she knew to the police.  I could have done so by an anonymous letter.  She came and then I forced her to promise to stop the marriage.  I may as well add that I wrote insisting on the marriage being stopped as soon as Emilia died.”

“Ah!  And I thought along with Cuthbert that it was hatred of me that made Mrs. Octagon—­”

“Oh, she hates you sure enough.  But are you not astonished by my news?”

“Very much astonished,” responded Caranby thoughtfully, “how came it that Selina died and Isabella lived?”

“The three met in the unfinished house,” explained Maraquito.  “I had the story from Emilia myself.  There was a quarrel.  All three were in love with you.  Selina was standing on a plank at a considerable height from the ground.  In a rage Emilia pushed her off.  Isabella held her tongue as she hated Selina.”

“But the substitution?”

“Well.  In the fall Selina’s face was much mutilated.  I believe,” added Maraquito, in a coldblooded manner, “that Emilia made it worse”—­here Caranby shuddered and Maraquito laughed—­“oh, my aunt was not a woman to stick at trifles.  She insisted on changing dresses with the dead.  It was the workmen’s dinner-hour and no one was about.  She forced Isabella to assist her by threatening to tell the police that Isabella had murdered her sister.  As the sisters were on bad terms, Isabella knew that she might be accused, and so she held her tongue.”

“But she could have accused Emilia.”

“Emilia would have denied the accusation.  Moreover, Isabella was intimidated by the fierce nature of my aunt.”

“A fierce nature, indeed, that would mutilate the dead.  But I do not see how Emilia hoped that the substitution would pass undiscovered by Selina’s friends, to say nothing of her father.”

“The idea was that Emilia, as Selina, should go abroad and return to England in a few years.  Owing to the unexpected death of Mr. Loach, the father, the substitution was easy.  You know how Isabella alone appeared at the inquest, and how Selina—­really my aunt—­pretended to be sick.  Then the two went abroad and came back; Emilia as Miss Loach went to Rose Cottage, and Isabella married Mr. Saxon.”