"No. I seem to recollect him with a girl in a light green dress, but that does not take us far."
Footsteps on the stairway announced their host's return.
"The police will be here, directly," he reported, "and, I hope, a doctor. I have done my best to keep it from the ladies, and I don't think that, so far, any of them has an exact idea of what made me turn them back. Just as well the horror should be kept dark as long as possible. It is such an awful blow to me that I can scarcely realize it yet."
"Miss Morriston does not know?" Kelson asked.
"No. And I only hope it won't give her a dislike to the house when she does. For I am hoping to have her here a good deal with me, even if she marries."
A police inspector accompanied by a detective and a constable now arrived. Morriston took them into the room of death. Gifford grasped Kelson's arm.
"I don't think there is any use in our staying here," he suggested. "Let us go down."
The other man nodded, and they began to descend.
"You are not going, Kelson?" Morriston cried, hurrying to the door.
"We thought we could be of no use and might be in the way," Gifford replied.
"Oh, I wish you would stay," Morriston urged, going down a few steps to them. "I know it is not pleasant; on the contrary it's a ghastly affair; but I should like to have you with me till this police business is over. I won't ask you to stay up here, but if you don't mind waiting downstairs I should be so grateful. I might want your advice. You'll find the rest of the party in the drawing-room."
The two could do no less than promise, and, with a word of thanks, Morriston went back to the officials.
As the two men crossed the hall the drawing-room door opened and Miss Morriston came out.
"He will be down soon," Gifford answered in as casual a tone as he could assume.
The girl seemed struck by the gravity of their faces as she glanced from one to the other. "I hope nothing is wrong," she observed, with just a shade of apprehension.
There was a momentary pause as each man, hesitating between a direct falsehood, the truth, and a plausible excuse, rather waited for the other to speak.
Gifford answered. "No, nothing that you need worry about, Miss Morriston. Your brother will tell you later on."