Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/285

 Liane Rodache had been found by the "smart young detective, Gaylor," living in lodgings in Moreton Crescent, Westbourne Grove, and arrested on suspicion of complicity in the murder of Lady Hereward. She had confessed to pawning the gold vanity box which had led to her discovery; and it had been identified by Sir Ian Hereward on his return from France, as the property of his late wife. Liane had been run to earth by Gaylor with the help of a photograph made at Havershall, Surrey, although her appearance had greatly changed since the portrait was taken. Her hair, auburn formerly, had been allowed to resume its natural dark brown. Her complexion was sallow, rather than brilliant, as it had been. She was thin to the point of emaciation, and showed signs of having passed through a severe illness. Her story was elaborate, and if true, exonerated Barr from one charge, at least; that made against him by Lady Hereward. Denying that Barr had ever been her lover, Liane accused his intimate friend, a young socialist author and newspaper writer, named Ernest Bayne, late of Deodar Lodge, near Riding St. Mary.

This young man had French blood in his veins. His mother, a French girl of good birth, had married an English commercial traveller, who, losing his position through illness, had become impoverished during the son's boyhood. The youth had been clever, had conquered many difficulties, and succeeded as