in their ages?"
Cyril forced himself to smile superciliously.
"And is my wife's youthful appearance your only reason for doubting her identity?"
The doctor seemed a little staggered by Cyril's nonchalant manner.
"It is my chief reason, but as I have just taken the trouble to explain, not my only one."
"Oh, really! And if she is not my wife, whom do you suspect her of being?"
"I have no idea."
"You astonish me." In trying to conceal his agitation Cyril unfortunately assumed an air of frigid detachment, which only served to exasperate the doctor still further.
"Your manner is insulting, my lord."
"Your suspicions are so flattering!" drawled Cyril.
The doctor glared at Cyril for a moment but seemed at a loss for a crushing reply.
"You must acknowledge that appearances are against you," he said at last, making a valiant effort to control his temper. "If you are a man of honour, you ought to appreciate that my position is a very difficult one and to be as ready to forgive me, if I have erred through excessive zeal, as I shall be to apologize to you. Now let me ask you one more question. Why were you so anxious that I should not see the jewels?""Oh, had you not seen them? I thought, of course, that you had. I apologise for not having satisfied your curiosity." There was a short pause during which the doctor looked long and searchingly at Cyril. "I can't help it. I feel that there is something fishy about this business. You can't convince me to the contrary."

"I was not aware that I was trying to do so." The doctor almost danced with rage.

"Lord Wilmersley--for I suppose you are Lord Wilmersley?" "Unless I am his valet, Peter Thompkins."

"I know nothing about you," cried the doctor, "and you have succeeded to your title under very peculiar circumstances, my lord."

"So you suspect me not only of flogging my wife but of murdering my cousin!" laughed Cyril. "My dear doctor, don't you realise that if there were the slightest grounds for your suspicions, the police would have put me under surveillance long ago. Why, I can easily prove that I was in Paris at the time of the murder."

"Oh, you are clever! I don't doubt that you have an impeccable alibi. But if I informed the police that you were passing off as your wife a girl several years younger than Lady Wilmersley, a girl, moreover, who, you acknowledged, joined you at Newhaven the very morning after the murder--if I told them that this young lady had in her possession a remarkable number of jewels, which she carried in a 

 Prev. P 81/173 next