"
"Ah!" he ejaculated, slightly taken aback for one so invariably
impassive.
"And to whom is the guilt of this crime ascribed?" he presently
ventured.
"There was mention of no name; but the opprobrium naturally falls
on Miss Tuttle."
"Miss Tuttle? Ah!"
"Since Mr. Jeffrey is proved to have been too far away at the time
to have fired that shot, while she -"
"I am following you -"
"Was in the very house - at the door of the library in fact - and
heard the pistol discharged, if she did not discharge it herself -
which some believe, notably the district attorney. You should have
been there, Mr. Moore."
He looked surprised at this suggestion.
"I never am anywhere but here on the twenty-third of May," he
declared.
"Miss Tuttle needed some adviser."
"Ah, probably."
"You would have been a good one."
"And a welcome one, eh?"
I hardly thought he would have been a welcome one, but I did not
admit the fact. Nevertheless he seized on the advantage he evidently
thought he had gained and added, mildly enough, or rather without any
display of feeling:
"Miss Tuttle likes me even less than Veronica did. I do not think
she would have accepted, certainly she would not have desired, my
presence in her counsels. But of one thing I wish her to be assured,
her and the world in general.
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