“Margot,” I said, ‘how did it happen? “

“She has been delicate for a long time, hasn’t she?” Margot replied almost defensively, and I wondered what she was thinking.

“Perhaps,” she went on, ‘she was more ill than we thought. We believed really that she fancied she was ill all the time. “

The doctors came during the day. They were with the Comte in the chamber of death for a long time.

The Comte asked me to join him in the library and I went full of foreboding.

“Please sit, Minelle,” he said.

“This is an unexpected shock.”

Those words brought me an immense relief.

“I have always suspected that the Comtesse’s illness was imaginary,” he went on.

“It seems I did her an injustice. She was really ill.”

“What was her illness?”

He shook his head.

“The doctors are bewildered. They are not certain what caused her death. Nou-Nou is too distraite to talk. She has been with her since her birth and was completely devoted to her. I’m afraid this shock is going to be too much for her.”

I waited for him to go on but for once he seemed at a loss for words.

Then he said slowly: There will be an autopsy. “

I looked at him in astonishment.

“It is the custom,” he said, ‘when the cause of death is uncertain.

The doctors have formed the opinion, though, that she died of something she had taken. “

“It can’t be!” I cried.

“She looks peaceful,” he said.

“Of one thing we can be certain. She did not die painfully. It seems she went off in a peaceful sleep from which she has not awakened.”

“Was it a draught to make her sleep, do you think?”

“It may be so. Nou-Nou is too upset to speak to us yet. Tomorrow she will have recovered a little and may be able to help. I believe Ursule was in the habit of taking some draught at bedtime.” His eyes did not leave my face. They glittered brightly and I avoided looking directly at him. The fear was strong in me.

“It is going to be rather a difficult time,” he said.

“This sort of thing can be very unpleasant. There will be a great deal of speculation. There always is when anyone dies suddenly. And the circumstances …”

I nodded.

“Nou-Nou will know whether she took a sleeping draught.”

“Nou-Nou would prepare it for her. I am sure when she is able to talk we may understand how this happened.”

“Do you think that the Comtesse …”

“That she did it deliberately? No, I don’t think so. I think there has been some terrible mistake. But we can reach no conclusions through conjecture. This may be unpleasant, as I said, and I should prefer you and Marguerite not to be here. Make your preparations to leave for Paris. I think you should go immediately after the autopsy.” He paused, then went on briskly: “Now, I do not think you should remain here with me long.” He smiled at me wryly, and I knew what was in his mind. His wife had died suddenly and his interest in me was obvious. I could see that we should both be under suspicion.

“Send Marguerite to me,” he added.

“I will warn her

that she must be ready to leave for Paris fairly soon. “

That was a week of nightmare. Suspicion was rife and I was at the heart of it. I wondered what would happen if the Comte was accused of murder . or I was. I could hear accusing voices asking me about my relationship with the Comte. I was his cousin, was I? Would I please explain.

The Comte was less disturbed than I. He was confident that there would be some explanation. There was a distressing scene with Nou-Nou who came to my room one night when I was preparing for bed.

She looked terribly ill. I was sure she had not slept since the death of the Comtesse. She was hollow-eyed and had not brushed or combed her hair, it hung, half up, half down, in straggling grey strands about her face. Clutching a bed-gown about her, she looked like a spectre.

She said to me: “You do well to look guilty. Mademoiselle.”

I replied: “Guilt! I neither look nor feel guilty. You must know that, NouNou.”

“It was her bedtime dose,” she said.

“I used to give it to her when she couldn’t sleep. I knew just how much was needed to send her off.

That night she had had a treble dose. It should have taken an hour to have effect . but she was sleeping when I came in . You were there that night. He was there too. The two of you. “

“She was asleep when I came in. You know that. It was just eight o’clock.”

“I didn’t know enough of what was going on. There was her dose there by the bed. Well, someone added to it, didn’t they? Someone who crept in …”

“I tell you she was asleep when I came…”

“I came out and found you with the glass in your hand.”

This is absurd. I had only just come into the room. “

There was somebody else there, wasn’t there? You know that. “

I felt the blood rushing into my cheeks.

“What… are you suggesting?”

“Doses don’t get into glasses without being put there, do they?

Someone did it. someone in this house. “

For a moment I was too stunned to reply. I kept thinking of that moment when I had seen the Comte slipping out through the french window on to the terrace. How long had he been with her? Long enough to give her the dose . to wait while she drank it? Oh, no, I told myself. I won’t believe it.

I stammered: “You don’t know the cause of her death. It has not yet been proved.”

Her eyes glittered and she looked at me steadily.

“I know,” she said.

She came close to me and, laying a hand on my arm, peered into my face.

“If she’d never married, she’d be alive today. She’d be her bonny self just as she used to be before her wedding. I remember the night before that wedding. I couldn’t comfort her. Oh, these marriages. Why can’t they let children be children till they know what life’s about!”

In spite of the horrible fear which would not leave me, in spite of the shock of realizing how deeply involved I was, I felt sorry for Nou-Nou. It seemed that the death of her beloved charge had unhinged her mind. Something had gone out of her. The fierce dragon guarding her treasure had become a sad creature only wanting to crawl into a corner and die. She was looking round to blame someone. She hated the Comte and her venom was directed mainly against him, but because it was known that he had a fondness for me, she let it fall on me too.

“Oh, Nou-Nou,” I said, the compassion I felt for her obvious in my voice, “I am so sorry this has happened.”

She looked at me slyly.

“Perhaps you think it makes it easier for you, eh? Perhaps you think that now she is out of the way …”

“Nou-Nou!” I cried sharply.

“Stop that wicked talk.”

“You’ll have a shock.” She began to laugh; it was horrible laughter, at times like the cackle of a hen. Then she stopped suddenly.

“You and he plot together …”

“You must not say such things. They are absolutely false. Let me take you back to your room. You need rest. This has been a terrible shock for you.”

Suddenly she started to cry-silently, the tears streaming down her face.

“She was everything to me,” she said.

“My little lamb, my darling baby. All I’d got. I never took to any other. It was always my little mignon ne

“I know,” I said.

“But I’ve lost her. She’s not there any more.”

“Come, Nou-Nou.” I took her arm and led her back to her room.

When we were there she broke away from me.

I shall go to her,” she said; and she went into that room where the body of the Comtesse lay.

They were difficult days to live through. I saw little of the Comte.

He avoided me, which was wise, because there were whispers about him and it was likely that my name was being linked with his.

I rode out with Marguerite, Etienne and Leon and as we passed close to a village a stone was thrown at us. It hit Etienne on the arm but I think it was meant for me.

“Murderess I’ shouted a voice.

We saw a group of young men and we knew the missile had come from them. Etienne was for giving chase but Leon deterred him.

“Better be careful,” Leon advised.

“This could start a riot. Ignore it.”

They need to be taught a lesson. “

“We must take care,” said Leon, ‘that they do not attempt to teach us one. “

After that I felt reluctant to go out.

We could not leave the chateau until after the autopsy and because of the Comte’s position this aroused a good deal of attention. I was terribly afraid because I knew it had already been decided that he had murdered his wife.

I was greatly relieved to hear that I should not be expected to appear. I feared a probing into the reason why I had come to France and what would happen if Marguerite’s indiscretion had come to light?

How would Robert de Grasseville react? Would he want to marry her then? I sometimes felt it would have been better for her to make a complete confession to him but on the other hand I did not consider myself sufficiently worldly to know whether this would be wise.

The Comte returned in due course. The affair was over and the verdict was that the cause of death was the overdose of a sleeping draught which contained opium in excessive quantities. The Comtesse was discovered to have suffered from a disease of the lungs a disease from which it was recalled her mother had died. Doctors had visited her recently and had expressed their certainty that she was suffering from this disease in its early stages. If the Comtesse had known of this she would also have known that later she would have to endure great pain. The most likely verdict was that, knowing this, she had taken her own life by drinking a large quantity of a sleeping draught which she had been taking in small doses for some time, and which when taken thus could produce gentle sleep and be quite harmless.

The day he returned Nou-Nou paid one of her visits to my bedroom. She seemed to take a delight in my discomfiture.

“So,” she said, ‘you think this is the end of the matter, do you.

Mademoiselle? “

“The law is satisfied,” I said.

The law! Who is the law? Who has always been the law? He has . he and his kind. One law for the rich . one for the poor. That’s what the trouble’s about. He has his friends . all over the place. ” She stepped nearer to me.

“He came to me and he threatened me. He said:

“Stop your scandalous gossip, Nou-Nou. If you don’t you can get out.

And where would you go then, tell me that? Do you want to be sent away away from the rooms where she lived . away from her tomb where you can weep and revel in your mourning? ” Yes, that’s what he said. I said to him:

“You were there. You came into the room. You were with her. And then that woman came, didn’t she? Did she come to see if you’d done what you planned together? …”

“Stop it, Nou-Nou,” I said.

“You know I came because she said she wanted to see me. You yourself brought the message. She was already asleep when he left.”

“You saw him go, didn’t you? You came in … just as he was going. Oh, it’s a strange business, I’d say.”

“It’s not strange at all, Nou-Nou,” I said firmly.

“And you know it.”

She looked startled.

“What is it you’re so sure of?”

“I know this,” I replied.

“The verdict has been given. I believe it because it is the only possible one.”

She started to laugh wildly. I took her arm and shook it.

“Nou-Nou, go back to your room. Try to rest. Try to be calm. This is a terrible tragedy, but it is over and no good can come by dwelling on it.”

“It’s over for some,” she said mournfully.

“Life is over for some … for mignon ne and her old Nou-Nou. Others think it is just beginning for them perhaps.”

I shook my head angrily and she sat down suddenly and covered her face with her hands.

After a while she allowed me to take her back to her room.

It was I who found the stone with the paper attached to it. It was lying in the corridor outside my bedroom. I saw first that the window had been smashed and there on the floor was this object.

I picked it up. It was a heavy stone and stuck on it was the piece of paper. On this was written in uneven script: “Aristocrat. You murdered your wife but it is one law for the rich, one for the poor. Take heed.