"Then Lady Coverly must be something over forty years of age," said I
musingly.

One of my theories, a wild one, I must confess, was shattered by this
piece of information. In short I had conceived the idea (and the news
that Lady Coverly had resided for some years in Egypt had strengthened
it) that the woman in the case was none other than the mistress of
Friar's Park! Her antipathy towards the late baronet had seemed to
suggest a motive for the crime. But it was impossible to reconcile the
figure of this lonely and bereaved woman with that of the
supernormally agile visitant to my cottage in London, in short, with
the possessor of those dreadful green eyes. I determined to try a new
tack, and remembering that the real object of my journey to Upper
Crossleys was to learn particulars respecting the early death of Roger
Coverly:

"Did Mr. Roger Coverly die in England?" I inquired.

"Oh, no, sir; he died in foreign parts, but they brought him home to
bury him, they did."

"Do you know of what he died?"

"Oh, ah. I have heard tell it was some foreign fever like--took him
off sudden, and him only a lad. It killed poor Sir Burnham, it did."

"Then Sir Burnham died shortly afterwards?"

"Two years afterwards, and these parts has never been the same since."