"Italian! Why----" Suddenly a vision of the woman with the Italian name, Tochatti, Mrs. Carstairs' personal attendant, flashed into Anstice's mind, and Clive's eyes grew still keener in expression as he noted the eager tone in his visitor's voice.
"Well?" As Anstice paused the expert spoke quickly. "Does the suggestion convey anything to your mind?"
"Yes," said Anstice. "It does. But the only Italian--or half-Italian--person I know, a woman, by the way, is absolutely the last one I could suspect in the matter."
"Really?" As he spoke Clive removed his eyeglasses once more and stared with his brilliant eyes at the other man's face. "Don't forget that in cases like these it is generally the last person to be suspected who turns out to be the one responsible. Of course I don't know the facts of the case, and my suggestions are therefore of little practical value. At the same time the very fact that you are able at once to identify an Italian in the case----"
"She is not altogether Italian," said Anstice slowly. "She's a half-breed, so to speak--and I really can't in fairness suspect her, devoted as she is to Mrs. Carstairs----"
He broke off abruptly, annoyed with himself for having betrayed so much; but Clive's manner suddenly became more animated.
"See here, Dr. Anstice." He sat down again, and handed his cigarette case to his visitor. "May I be frank with you?"
"Certainly." He accepted a cigarette and Clive resumed immediately.
"I think I am correct in assuming that the first letter is one of those supposed--by some people--to have been written by Mrs. Carstairs, wife of Major Carstairs of the Indian Army?"
"Yes." It would have been folly to deny the correctness of the assumption.
"Well, I was not professionally interested in the case, but all along I have had very grave doubts as to the course of justice in that unhappy affair. And I have always thought the sentence was unjustifiably severe."
Anstice's face cleared, and his manner lost its first stiffness.
"I am glad to hear you say so," he said heartily. "For my own part I am perfectly convinced Mrs. Carstairs was absolutely innocent in the matter. You see, I have the privilege of her acquaintance, and it would be quite impossible for her to stoop to so low and degrading an action."
"Just so." For a second the expert wondered whether Dr. Anstice's interest in Mrs. Carstairs arose from a purely personal dislike to see an innocent woman unjustly accused or from some warmer feeling; but after all it was no concern of his, and he dismissed that aspect of the case from his mind for the present. "But I should like to ask you to explain one thing to me. Would it have been possible for this Italian woman of whom you speak to have written those former letters? I gather that it is not altogether impossible, though I daresay improbable, for her to be connected with this last one; but of course, if she must be acquitted of any hand in the first, the clue drops to the ground at once."