Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/270

 the habit of going to the View Tower, and maybe it was to meet Liane, who most likely dropped this hairpin on one of her last visits there. If he was in communication with her, and feared suspicion falling on him after the murder (we know he did fear that or he would not have got out of the way so smartly), what more natural than he should hand the jewels over to the girl—maybe confiding the whole story to her? No doubt he has ordered her to hang on to everything like grim death, or she would probably have pawned some of the things before this. But if she was in difficulties, she might have been tempted to get rid of this vanity box—the least remarkable piece in the lot. And the curious quality in the veiled woman's voice, which the assistant couldn't clearly remember, must have been a slight French accent, which she would have tried to disguise as best she could. And it would have been slight, as I believe Liane had lived a number of years in England. Friars' Moat wasn't her first place."

"You make your points," said Burrows.

"Another thing, if another was needed, to make me think the woman at the pawnbroker's must have been Liane," continued Gaylor, "is the name and address she gave. Now, I m fairly observant, I hope. I went down to Riding St. Mary on purpose to observe, and I observed a lot of little things which didn't seem to have any particular bearing on the case. They went in with the rest, like a 'mixed lot' at a sale. I noticed