"He didn't kill the man--how could he, seeing he was at Hampstead on that Christmas Eve midnight, as I found out from his servants ?" "I don't suspect him of actually striking the blow," replied Lucian, "but I believe he knows who did." "Not he! Dr.Jorce has too responsible a position to mix himself up in a crime from which he gains no benefit." "Why! what position does he hold ?" "He is the owner of a private lunatic asylum.

Is it likely that a man like him would commit a murder ?" "Again I deny that he did commit the crime; but I am certain, from the very fact of his friendship with Ferruci, that he knows more than he chooses to tell.

Why should the Italian be intimate with the owner of a private asylum--with a man so much beneath him in rank ?" "I don't know, sir.

But if you suspect Dr.Jorce you had better see him when he comes back from his holidays--in a month." "Where is he now ?" "In Italy, and the Count has gone with him." Diana and Lucian looked at one another, and the former spoke: "That is strange," she said.

"I agree with Mr.Denzil, it is peculiar, to say the least of it, that an Italian noble should make a bosom friend of a man so far inferior to him in position.