The adjourned inquest was to be resumed the following day, and no
doubt some verdict would be returned. It was improbable, in spite of the
malice at work, that any attempt would be made--legally--to incriminate
Faversham.
It was of Faversham that he was chiefly thinking. When he had first
proposed his companionship, the day after the murder, it had been quietly
accepted, with a softened look of surprise, and he and Undershaw had
since kept watch over a bewildered man, protecting him as far as they
could from the hostile world at his gates.
How he would emerge--what he meant to do with Melrose's vast heritage,
Boden had no idea. His life seemed to have shrunk into a dumb, trancelike
state. He rarely or never left the house; he could not be induced to
go either to Duddon or to the Cottage; nor would he receive visitors. He
had indeed seen his solicitors, but had said not a word to Boden on the
subject. It was rumoured that Nash was already endeavouring to persuade
a distant cousin of Melrose and Lady Tatham to dispute the will.
Meanwhile, through Boden, Lydia Penfold had been kept in touch with a man
who could not apparently bring himself to reopen their relation. Boden
saw her nearly every day; they had become fast friends. Victoria too was
as often at the cottage as the state of Netta Melrose allowed, and she
and Lydia, born to understand each other, had at last arrived thereat.
But Mrs. Melrose was dying; and her little daughter, a more romantic
figure than ever, in the public eye, was to find, it said, a second
mother in Lady Tatham.
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