A STARTLING THEORY When Diana declared that her father yet lived, Lucian drew back from her in amazement, for of all impossible things said of this impossible case this saying of hers was the strangest and most incredible.

Hitherto, not a suspicion had entered his mind but that the man so mysteriously slain in Geneva Square was Mark Vrain, and, for the moment, he thought that Diana was distraught to deny so positive a fact.
"It is impossible," said he, shaking his head, "quite impossible.

Mrs.
Vrain identified the corpse, and so did other people who knew your father well." "As to Mrs.Vrain," said Diana contemptuously, "I quite believe she would lie to gain her own ends.

And it may be that the man who was murdered was like my father in the face, but--" "He had the mark on his cheek," interrupted Lucian, impatient of this obstinate belief in the criminality of Lydia.
"I know that mark well," replied Miss Vrain.

"My father received it in a duel he fought in his youth, when he was a student in a German university; but the missing finger." She shook her head.
"He might have lost the finger while you were in Australia," suggested the barrister.
"He might," rejoined Diana doubtfully, "but it is unlikely.