"Well, my lord, I must say that you have surprised me. Yet I ought to have guessed it. It was stupid of me, very." "I tell you that you are on the wrong track. Lady Wilmersley has golden hair. Well, this lady's hair is black." "She has dyed it." "She has not, for it has turned completely white," exclaimed Cyril, triumphantly. "Did she tell you so?" "Yes." "Her Ladyship is cleverer than I supposed," remarked the detective with a pitying smile. "I am not such a fool as you seem to think," retorted Cyril. "And I can assure you that the lady in question is incapable of deception." "All I can say is, my lord, that I am absolutely sure of her Ladyship's identity and that you yourself gave me the clue to her whereabouts." "I--how?" "I of course noticed that when you heard her Ladyship had golden hair, you were not only extremely surprised but also very much relieved. I at once asked myself why such an apparently trivial matter should have so great and so peculiar an effect on you. As you had never seen her Ladyship, I argued that you must that very day have met some one you had reason to suppose to be Lady Wilmersley and that this person had dark hair. By following your movements from the time you landed I found that the only woman with whom you had come in contact was a young lady who had joined you in Newhaven, and that she answered to the description of Lady Wilmersley in every particular, with the sole exception that she had dark hair! I was, however, told that you had said that she was your wife and had produced a passport to prove it. Now I had heard from your valet that her Ladyship was still in France, so you can hardly blame me for doubting the correctness of your statement. But in order to make assurance doubly sure, I sent one of my men to the continent. He reported that her Ladyship had for some months been a patient at Charleroi, but had recently escaped from there, and that you are still employing detectives to find her." "I did not engage you to pry into my affairs," exclaimed Cyril savagely.
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