“Who told you?” came the question as quick as lightning. “Who told you, if you never speak to anyone?”
“Two of the girls from the Abbey,” was the instant reply, “Miriam and Gladys. They are housemaids there. They were out for a walk one afternoon about three weeks ago and stopped to admire my roses and I invited them in for a cup of tea. Everyone knows I am supposed to be deaf and so they wrote it down on a piece of paper for me, and I learnt a lot besides, from their talking in between, when they were deciding what to write down.” She added, after a moment, for the detective had made no comment, “and the master talked a lot about it, too.” She shook her head slowly. “It's very sad about the master, and it all comes from living so much alone. When he's upset about anything, he talks on an
