"
"I'm afraid all the other characters would look like fools. That's the
difficulty."
"They would," said the judge. "I'm very much afraid they would.
Perhaps after all you'd better not put me in. Let him poison some one
else. I shouldn't be an attractive figure if I were posed as one of
Meldon's victims."
"Perhaps," said Miss King, "I might work out the plot in such a way
that you'd get the better of him in the end."
"I fully intend to. I shall see him to-morrow, and if the thing is
possible at all, I shall make him thoroughly ashamed of himself."
"Then I'll wait till after to-morrow," said Miss King, "before I decide
on my plot. It will be much easier for me if I get the whole thing
ready-made."
Sir Gilbert Hawkesby finished his cigar and went to bed. He was
tolerably well satisfied with himself. He understood, so he believed,
the motives which had induced Meldon to make his life in Ballymoy
uncomfortable. He was sure that Miss King was able to manage her own
affairs, and he was not anxious to make objections to her marrying
Major Kent, or any other tolerably respectable man whom she happened to
like. He knew, too, that Lady Hawkesby would be pleased to have her
niece settled in life in any way which would put a stop to the growing
notoriety of the novels she wrote.
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