I told you everything."
"What you told me may have been told to Mrs. Octagon with
additions. She thinks you guilty, and therefore has
threatened to denounce you unless Juliet gives you up. She
has done so, therefore Mrs. Octagon holds her bitter tongue."
"But her reason for wishing to break off the marriage."
"We discussed that before. In the first place, you are
Caranby's nephew and she hates him. In the second, she and
Basil want the fingering of the six thousand a year left by
Miss Loach. Should you marry Miss Saxon, they know well you
will look after her interests, therefore they don't wish the
match to take place. I am not quite sure if this is Basil's
plan, or if he knows so much, but I am quite certain that the
scheme is of Mrs. Octagon's concoction. But now you can see
why Miss Saxon behaved so strangely."
"She has no right to take up such a position," cried Cuthbert,
with a fierce look. "She should have been plain with me and
have accused me to my face."
"Do you think a woman cares to accuse the man she loves?
Besides, Mrs. Octagon may have forced her to keep silence, so
as to make the matter more difficult for you. The only way in
which you can clear up matters is to see Miss Saxon and insist
on an explanation."
"And if she won't give it?"
"I think she will this time," said Jennings with a grim smile.
"By now she must have discovered her loss, and she knows well
enough that the knife is in my possession.
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