pushed her out again. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good
in making a row.
Did your wife hear all this?
No, thank goodness, she did not.
And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?
Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as so
serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid some
terrible trap for her.
Well, it is a possible supposition.
You think so, too?
I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon this
as likely?
I do not think Flora would hurt a fly.
Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray what is
your own theory as to what took place?
Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I have
given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may say that it
has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of this affair, the
consciousness that she had made so immense a social stride, had the
effect of causing some little nervous disturbance in my wife.
In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?
Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back I will not
say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to without
success I can hardly explain it in any other fashion.
Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis, said Holmes,
smiling. And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have nearly all my
data. May I ask whether you were seated at the breakfast-table so that
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