“In plain words,” Dominey said bitterly, “she has sworn to take my life if ever I sleep under the same roof.”

“She will need, I am afraid, to be strictly watched,” the lawyer answered evasively.  “Still, I think you ought to be told that time does not seem to have lessened her tragical antipathy.”

“She regards me still as the murderer of Roger Unthank?” Dominey asked, in a measured tone.

“I am afraid she does.”

“And I suppose that every one else has the same idea?”

“The mystery,” Mr. Mangan admitted, “has never been cleared up.  It is well known, you see, that you fought in the park and that you staggered home almost senseless.  Roger Unthank has never been seen from that day to this.”

“If I had killed him,” Dominey pointed out, “why was his body not found?”

The lawyer shook his head.

“There are all sorts of theories, of course,” he said, “but for one superstition you may as well be prepared.  There is scarcely a man or a woman for miles around Dominey who doesn’t believe that the ghost of Roger Unthank still haunts the Black Wood near where you fought.”

“Let us be quite clear about this,” Dominey insisted.  “If the body should ever be found, am I liable, after all these years, to be indicted for manslaughter?”

“I think you may make your mind quite at ease,” the lawyer assured him.  “In the first place, I don’t think you would ever be indicted.”

“And in the second?”

“There isn’t a human being in that part of Norfolk would ever believe that the body of man or beast, left within the shadow of the Black Wood, would ever be seen or heard of again!”

CHAPTER IV

Mr. Mangan, on their way into the grill room, loitered for a few minutes in the small reception room, chatting with some acquaintances, whilst his host, having spoken to the maitre d’hotel and ordered a cocktail from a passing waiter, stood with his hands behind his back, watching the inflow of men and women with all that interest which one might be supposed to feel in one’s fellows after a prolonged absence.  He had moved a little to one side to allow a party of young people to make their way through the crowded chamber, when he was conscious of a woman standing alone on the topmost of the three thickly carpeted stairs.  Their eyes met, and hers, which had been wandering around the room as though in search of some acquaintance, seemed instantly and fervently held.  To the few loungers about the room, ignorant of any special significance in that studied contemplation of the man on the part of the woman, their two personalities presented an agreeable, almost a fascinating study.  Dominey was six feet two in height and had to its fullest extent the natural distinction of his class, together with the half military, half athletic bearing which seemed to have been so marvellously restored