“This is a dreadful business,” groaned Mr. Sutherland, “the worst I have ever had anything to do with.  Help me to lift the woman in; she has been long enough a show for the people outside.”

There was a bed in this room (indeed, it was Mrs. Webb’s bedroom), and upon this poor Batsy was laid.  As the face came uppermost both gentlemen started and looked at each other in amazement.  The expression of terror and alarm which it showed was in striking contrast to the look of exaltation to be seen on the face of her dead mistress.

III

THE EMPTY DRAWER

As they re-entered the larger room, they were astonished to come upon Miss Page standing in the doorway.  She was gazing at the recumbent figure of the dead woman, and for a moment seemed unconscious of their presence.

“How did you get in?  Which of my men was weak enough to let you pass, against my express instructions?” asked the constable, who was of an irritable and suspicious nature.

She let the hood drop from her head, and, turning, surveyed him with a slow smile.  There was witchery in that smile sufficient to affect a much more cultivated and callous nature than his, and though he had been proof against it once he could not quite resist the effect of its repetition.

“I insisted upon entering,” said she.  “Do not blame the men; they did not want to use force against a woman.”  She had not a good voice and she knew it; but she covered up this defect by a choice of intonations that carried her lightest speech to the heart.  Hard-visaged Amos Fenton gave a grunt, which was as near an expression of approval as he ever gave to anyone.

“Well! well!” he growled, but not ill-naturedly, “it’s a morbid curiosity that brings you here.  Better drop it, girl; it won’t do you any good in the eyes of sensible people.”

“Thank you,” was her demure reply, her lips dimpling at the corners in a way to shock the sensitive Mr. Sutherland.

Glancing from her to the still outlines of the noble figure on the couch, he remarked with an air of mild reproof: 

“I do not understand you, Miss Page.  If this solemn sight has no power to stop your coquetries, nothing can.  As for your curiosity, it is both ill-timed and unwomanly.  Let me see you leave this house at once, Miss Page; and if in the few hours which must elapse before breakfast you can find time to pack your trunks, you will still farther oblige me.”

“Oh, don’t send me away, I entreat you.”

It was a cry from her inner heart, which she probably regretted, for she instantly sought to cover up her inadvertent self-betrayal by a submissive bend of the head and a step backward.  Neither Mr. Fenton nor Mr. Sutherland seemed to hear the one or see the other, their attention having returned to the more serious matter in hand.

“The dress which our poor friend wears shows her to have been struck before retiring,” commented Mr. Sutherland, after another short survey of Mrs. Webb’s figure.  “If Philemon—­”