Lady St. Simon said something about jumping a claim. She was
accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she meant.
American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your wife do
when she finished speaking to her maid?
She walked into the breakfast-room.
On your arm?
No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. Then,
after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose hurriedly,
muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She never came
back.
But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to her
room, covered her bride s dress with a long ulster, put on a bonnet,
and went out.
Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in
company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who had
already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran s house that morning.
Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, and
your relations to her.
Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. We have
been on a friendly footing for some years I may say on a _very_
friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have not treated her
ungenerously, and she had no just cause of complaint against me, but
you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. Flora was a dear little thing, but
exceedingly hot-headed and devotedly attached to me. She wrote me
dreadful letters when she heard that I was about to be married, and, to
tell the truth, the reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly
was that I feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came
to Mr. Doran s door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to push
her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my wife, and even
threatening her, but I had foreseen the possibility of something of the
sort, and I had two police fellows there in private clothes, who soon
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