his death-bed he had entrusted his papers to Baxter to send to England,
and Baxter had shown them to his future wife. The scheme came full grown
into her head. They left Ceylon to meet again in India, and there they
were married, Baxter giving his name as Grenville Rusholm. Thompson was
their only confidant. He could not be left out because he had known all
about Rusholm. There was one other who knew, but they believed him to be
dead. He was a wanderer, somewhat of a ne'er-do-well, and to Thompson's
consternation, after twenty years, he had turned up in Calcutta very much
alive. He was going to England to expose the fraud. He did not suspect
Thompson, who came to England first.

All this we heard from the son who for a short hour or two had called
himself Sir Arthur Rusholm. He was able to prove quite conclusively that
he was in entire ignorance of the fraud until Thompson's arrival. His
mother confessed everything to him then. It was she who had planned how
to get out of the difficulty. The duplicate coffin had been made at
Harwich, for a yachtsman who was to be taken abroad to be buried, they
had explained, but it was brought to Queen's Square and hidden in the
small drawing-room as Quarles had surmised. It was only to spare his
mother and father that the son had entered into the scheme, and I fancy
Quarles was a little annoyed that he had not suspected this.

Mrs. Baxter was not caught. Indeed, there were many people who
disbelieved the whole story of the fraud, even when the man who knew
arrived from India--a very strong proof of Mrs. Baxter's charm and
personality. I have heard from her son that she is in South America, and
that her husband is not dead. So far as I am aware the new baronet has
taken no steps to bring them to justice.

As Quarles says, she is a genius, and it would be a thousand pities if