‘Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of.’
‘You did not overhear what they said?’
‘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 had 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, uttered 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 has 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 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 given instructions to the servants, who soon 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?’