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Upon which I plunged into my subject.
"Mrs. Fairbrother wore the real diamond, and no imitation, to the
ball. Of this I feel sure. The bit of glass or paste displayed to
the coroner's jury was bright enough, but it was not the star of
light I saw burning on her breast as she passed me on her way to
the alcove."
"Miss Van Arsdale!"
"The interest which Mr. Durand displayed in it, the marked
excitement into which he was thrown by his first view of its size
and splendor, confirm in my mind the evidence which he gave on
oath (and he is a well-known diamond expert, you know, and must
have been very well aware that he would injure rather than help
his cause by this admission) that at that time he believed the
stone to be real and of immense value. Wearing such a gem, then,
she entered the fatal alcove, and, with a smile on her face,
prepared to employ her fascinations on whoever chanced to come
within their reach. But now something happened. Please let me
tell it my own way. A shout from the driveway, or a bit of snow
thrown against the window, drew her attention to a man standing
below, holding up a note fastened to the end of a whip-handle. I
do not know whether or not you have found that man. If you have--
" The inspector made no sign. "I judge that you have not, so I
may go on with my suppositions. Mrs. Fairbrother took in this
note. She may have expected it and for this reason chose the
alcove to sit in, or it may have been a surprise to her. Probably
we shall never know the whole truth about it; but what we can
know and do, if you are still holding to our compact and viewing
this crime in the light of Mr. Durand's explanations, is that it
made a change in her and made her anxious to rid herself of the
diamond. It has been decided that the hurried scrawl should read,
'Take warning. He means to be at the ball. Expect trouble if you
do not give him the diamond,' or something to that effect. But
why was it passed up to her unfinished? Was the haste too great?
I hardly think so. I believe in another explanation, which points
with startling directness to the possibility that the person
referred to in this broken communication was not Mr. Durand, but
one whom I need not name; and that the reason you have failed to
find the messenger, of whose appearance you have received
definite information, is that you have not looked among the
servants of a certain distinguished visitor in town. Oh," I burst
forth with feverish volubility, as I saw the inspector's lips
open in what could not fail to be a sarcastic utterance, "I know
what you feel tempted to reply. Why should a servant deliver a
warning against his own master? If you will be patient with me
you will soon see; but first I wish to make it clear that Mrs.
Fairbrother, having received this warning just before Mr. Durand
appeared in the alcove,--reckless, scheming woman that she was!--
sought to rid herself of the object against which it was directed
in the way we have temporarily accepted as true. Relying on her
arts, and possibly misconceiving the nature of Mr. Durand's
interest in her, she hands over the diamond hidden in her
rolled-up gloves, which he, without suspicion, carries away with
him, thus linking himself indissolubly to a great crime of which
another was the perpetrator. That other, or so I believe from my
very heart of hearts, was the man I saw leaning against the wall
at the foot of the alcove a few minutes before I passed into the
supper-room."
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