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"But they don't Friends should help one another and think it a privilege"

"Oh, I shouldn'tyou as I do But no one can help a poor devil in a case like this--and certainly not a medical jurist"

"Oh, come, Berkeley!" he protested, "don't rate us too low The humblest of creatures has its uses--'even the little pisot substantial help from a stamp-collector And then reflect upon the motor-scorcher and the earthworm and the blow-fly All these lowly creatures play their parts in the scheme of Nature; and shall we cast out the hed dejectedly at enial irony

"What Ito be done but wait--perhaps for ever I don't knohy she isn't able to marry me, and I mustn't ask her She can't be married already"

"Certainly not She told you explicitly that there was no man in the case"

"Exactly And I can think of no other valid reason, excepting that she doesn't care enough for me That would be a perfectly sound reason, but then it would only be a temporary one, not the insuperable obstacle that she assuether I hope it isn't some confounded perverse feminine scruple I don't see how it could be; but wo-headed at times"

"I don't see," said Thorndyke, "e should cast about for perversely abnormal motives when there is a perfectly reasonable explanation staring us in the face"

"Is there?" I exclai soha Do you realise what her position really is? I ard to her uncle's disappearance?"

"I don't think I quite understand you"

"Well, there is no use in blinking the facts," said Thorndyke "The position is this: If John Bellingham ever went to his brother's house at Woodford, it is nearly certain that he went there after his visit to Hurst Mind, I say 'if he went'; I don't say that I believe he did But it is stated that he appears to have gone there; and if he did go, he was never seen alive afterwards Now, he did not go in at the front door No one saw hiate, which John Bellingha in the library And you will rehaham had been alone in the library; that is to say, she was alone in the library at the very tiham is said to havepointed has been said up to the present But, sooner or later, if John Bellingham is not found, dead or alive, the question will be opened Then it is certain that Hurst, in self-defence, will make the most of any facts that may transfer suspicion from hiham"