Although it was now past one o'clock,
Arthur had not returned. None of us knew where Madame Zichy lived, so
we could not go to recover Lord Chetney's body. We spent a most
miserable night, hastening to the window whenever a cab came into the
square, in the hope that it was Arthur returning, and endeavoring to
explain away the facts that pointed to him as the murderer. I am a
friend of Arthur's, I was with him at Harrow and at Oxford, and I
refused to believe for an instant that he was capable of such a
crime; but as a lawyer I could not help but see that the
circumstantial evidence was strongly against him.
"Toward early morning, Lord Edam awoke, and in so much better a state
of health that he refused to make the changes in the papers which he
had intended, declaring that he was no nearer death than ourselves.
Under other circumstances, this happy change in him would have
relieved us greatly, but none of us could think of anything save the
death of his elder son and of the charge which hung over Arthur.
"As long as Inspector Lyle remained in the house, my father decided
that I, as one of the legal advisers of the family, should also
remain there.
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