"Perfectly so," said he, "I saw no body. Perhaps my description would
have been less vivid if I had. My intention you know. This woman had
deceived me to the point of making me believe that she was indeed Anitra,
the twin, and not my millionaire sister, and Georgian's fortune being
necessary to her heir, I wished to cut short the law's delay by an
apparent identification. I never doubted from the moment this woman faced
with such well-played ignorance the mark of great meaning we had placed
upon her door, that Georgian was in the river, as you all believed. Why
then not give her a positive resting-place, since this would smooth out
all difficulties and hasten the very end for which she had apparently
sacrificed herself."
If there was any irony in his heart, his tongue did not show it. Indeed
his manner betrayed little. Immobility had again replaced all tokens of
anger, and immobility which only yielded now and then to a slight
contortion more expressive of physical pain than of mental agitation.
Yet in Georgian's eyes he had lost none of his formidable qualities, for
the dismay with which she followed his words grew as she listened, and
reached its height as he added in final explanation:
"The bag I did draw out of the pool, but only because I had taken it down
there in my blouse front. Did you think a man could see that or anything
else indeed in that maddening swirl of water?"
"But it was Mrs.
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