There _is_ a man whom I'm--afraid of." "Siddle ?" She turned on Winter a face of sudden awe.
"How can you possibly guess ?" she said wonderingly, and sheer bewilderment dried her tears.
"My business is nine-tenths guesswork.

At any rate, we are on firm ground now.

If you could please yourself, I suppose, Mr.Siddle would not come to tea to-day!" "He certainly would not," declared the girl emphatically.
"You believe he is coming for a purpose ?" "Yes." "Elkin--I must drag him in again for an instant--pretends that the commotion aroused in the village by this murder would incline you favorably to a proposal of marriage.

Mr.Siddle may have discovered some virtue in the theory." "Did Mr.Elkin really hint that I needed _him_ as a shield ?" Doris was genuinely angry now.

She little imagined that Winter was playing on her emotions with a master hand.
"Don't waste any wrath on Elkin," he soothed her.