About half an hour later, sitting at lunch opposite to the girl who was now so occupying his thoughts, he wondered, as he watched her laughing eyes when she smiled, and the play of her pretty mouth when she spoke, if it could be possible such a dainty and glorious creature were a murderess. He looked at her hands. They were small and white and beautifully shaped, and yet it was one of those soft fingers, he was wanting to make out, which had pressed the trigger of that rifle and sent a fellow being into eternity.
It was a particularly bright and lively meal, as if, with the withdrawal of the policemen and detectives, the girls were now freed from all their anxieties. Both Beatrice and Lady Mentone had lost their careworn looks and chatted confidently with Larose, exactly as they would to
