The isolation of the
house, that conveniently near pond, would look as if thought of
beforehand. Even if pleading extreme provocation, Michael escaped
the rope, a long term of penal servitude would be inevitable.
Nor was it certain that even then the woman would go free. The
murdered man would still, by a strange freak, be her husband; the
murderer--in the eye of the law--her lover.
Her passionate will had prevailed. Young Hepworth had sailed for
America. There he had no difficulty in obtaining employment--of
course, under another name--in an architects office; and later had
set up for himself. Since the night of the murder they had not seen
each other till some three weeks ago.
* * *
I never saw the woman again. My friend, I believe, called on her.
Hepworth had already returned to America, and my friend had
succeeded in obtaining for her some sort of a police permit that
practically left her free.
Sometimes of an evening I find myself passing through the street.
And always I have the feeling of having blundered into an empty
theatre--where the play is ended.
HIS EVENING OUT.
The evidence of the park-keeper, David Bristow, of Gilder Street,
Camden Town, is as follows:
I was on duty in St.
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