“What motive?”

“Why, that of a jealous woman. Miss Van Norman was just about to marry the man Miss Dupuy is in love with. Perhaps⁠—do have patience, I’m merely supposing⁠—perhaps she has vainly urged Miss Van Norman to give him up, and, finding she wouldn’t do so, at the last minute she prevented the marriage herself⁠—putting that paper on the table to make it appear a suicide. This would explain her stealthy attempt to regain possession of the paper later.”

“Why should she want it?”

“So that it couldn’t be proved not to be in Miss Van Norman’s writing.”

“It’s ingenious on your part,” said Kitty slowly, “but it can’t be true. Cicely may be in love with Schuyler, but she wouldn’t kill Maddy because of that.”