human
Oh!--_how_ you startled me! gave out Lady Paula breathlessly, as she recognized who the intruder was.
gpt
What can you be doing here, Mr. Deland? The police ... this awful tragedy.
human
My dear Lady Paula, he said suavely,
gpt
I represent the police myself. I happen to have taken up criminology many years ago, and came up here to Scotland upon a little holiday. This terrible thing that has happened brought me immediately here to do my duty and to give what little help I could to you all in your bereavement. And so here I am. I beg of you, don't stay in this apartment now. It is no place for a lady--particularly a lady so highly strung and nervous as yourself.
human
But how--did you ever--come to hear about it? she demanded, stepping back a pace or two, with her eyes carefully avoiding that Thing which lay huddled there before them--mute reminder of all the terrors that had happened the night before.
gpt
How could you have known, Mr. Deland----
human
I mentioned the fact of my profession to your stepdaughter yesterday, and she immediately summoned me here. And, of course, I came. Anything which I can do....
gpt
Thank you. But there is nothing--nothing! I came in now because last night I--dropped my handkerchief, and it was one which I very much value, because my dear husband gave it to me upon the anniversary of our wedding-day. Duchesse lace, Mr. Deland, and with my name embroidered across the corner. And I knew, if the police found it, that I--I should never get it back again. Everything, you see, becomes a clue, doesn't it? But it seems not to be here.
human
No, he said,