There was still, too, the puzzle of the footsteps outside the glass doors.

If Mlle.

Celie had been bound upon the sofa, how came she to run with her limbs free from the house?
There was a question--a question not easy to answer." "Yes," said Mr.Ricardo.
"Yes; but there was also another question.

Suppose that Mlle.

Celie was, after all, the victim, not the accomplice; suppose she had been flung tied upon the sofa; suppose that somehow the imprint of her shoes upon the ground had been made, and that she had afterwards been carried away, so that the maid might be cleared of all complicity--in that case it became intelligible why the other footprints were scored out and hers left.