Philip, cutting me short
rather abruptly; "and I must beg, for reasons which will
presently appear, that you will make no statement of any sort to
me until you have first heard what I have to say. I am here on a
very serious and a very shocking errand, which deeply concerns
your mistress and you."
His face suggested something worse than his words expressed. My
heart began to beat fast, and I felt that I was turning pale.
"Your master, Mr. James Smith," he went on, "came here
unexpectedly yesterday evening, and slept in this house last
night. Before he retired to rest he and your mistress had high
words together, which ended, I am sorry to hear, in a threat of a
serious nature addressed by Mrs. James Smith to her husband. They
slept in separate rooms. This morning you went into your master's
room and saw no sign of him there. You only found his nightgown
on the bed, spotted with blood."
"Yes, sir," I said, in as steady a voice as I could command.
"Quite true."
"I am not examining you," said Mr. Philip. "I am only making a
certain statement, the truth of which you can admit or deny
before my brother."
"Before your brother, sir!" I repeated. "Am I suspected of
anything wrong?"
"There is a suspicion that Mr. James Smith has been murdered,"
was the answer I received to that question.
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