Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/258

 entered the Tower since the murder, it was clear that one must have been there, in the upper room, not very long before the day of Lady Hereward's death, if not on the day itself; and the question arose in Gaylor's mind: Was it a woman whom Barr had gone there to meet?

Naturally, he thought of Miss Verney, whose statements at the inquest had been so unsatisfactory. Now, as he had just heard, Barr had been caught with her in France, and it seemed more than ever probable that she and the young man had been together on the afternoon of the murder. It occurred to Gaylor that the girl might even be an accomplice, for Lady Hereward had separated her from her lover, temporarily at least, and caused Barr to forfeit the means of supporting a wife.

The hairpin, Gaylor thought, might very well be hers. She had red-gold hair; and this was not a common, black hairpin, but a golden brown one, wound with fine brown silk, so as to resemble the texture of hair. No woman with dark hair would choose to wear such a thing.

He put it in his pocket; and when he went back to the farmhouse for tea he brought out the hairpin, and showed it to his hostess.

"I suppose this isn't yours, is it, Mrs. Barnard?" he inquired.

"Well! Wherever did you pick that up?" Rose