“I don’t mean anything,” said Kitty, rather contradictorily. “But, as I said, Maddy was not killed by anyone inside the house⁠—I’m sure of that⁠—and no one from outside could get in, except Schuyler⁠—and he had a motive. Don’t you always, in detective work, look for the motive?”

“Yes, but this is too horrible!”

“All murders are ‘too horrible.’ But I tell you it must have been Schuyler⁠—it couldn’t have been Miss Burt!”

“Don’t be absurd! That little girl couldn’t kill a fly, I’m sure. I wish you could see her, Miss French. Then you’d understand how her very contrast to Miss Van Norman’s splendid beauty would fascinate Schuyler. And I know he was fascinated. I saw it in his repressed manner last evening, though I didn’t realize it then as I do now.”