Mrs. Mellop returned from the Richmond journey in a very bad temper, as she had wholly failed to get her own way with the wary¹ millionaire. Indeed, she was so persistent² in her attentions that Branwin put an end to them by hinting very plainly that he was engaged to be married. He also gave the widow to understand that it was time she brought her visit to a close, as he wished to send Audrey abroad for a time. Mrs. Mellop offered to accompany the girl, but learnt that arrangements had been made for the young lady to stay in Paris with a French family. No wonder the widow returned almost in tears, as she saw very well that the vintage was ended, and she had gathered but few grapes. Pleading a headache, she did not appear at dinner, and it was not until the next morning that Audrey learnt about her father's new plans. They did not please her.  
"I shan't go abroad," she said bluntly, when Mrs. Mellop had explained matters. "Papa wishes to separate me from Ralph."
 
"And wishes you to marry Lord Anvers," finished Mrs. Mellop, maliciously³.
 
Audrey laughed contemptuously. "I have refused Lord Anvers."
 
"He won't take a refusal, neither will your father."
 
"What does that matter to me?" cried the girl, passionately⁴. "Do you think that I am going to place my happiness in Lord Anvers' hands? A man I detest⁵ with all my heart. I shall marry Ralph, and no one else."
 
"Then you will lose your money," said Mrs. Mellop, with a gesture of despair.
 
"I don't mind losing it, so long as I have love."
 
"Love!" The widow made a face. "Oh! love is all very well, but it isn't money, and money is a necessity."
 
"To you perhaps, Mrs. Mellop, not to me. Ralph would marry me to-morrow if I chose. But I don't choose, as such a marriage would hinder his career. We must wait for better times."
 
"Well, I'm sure I hope you'll get your own way. But you can have no idea how hard your father is," wailed⁶ Mrs. Mellop. "He throws me over as coolly as though I were an old shoe, and I shall have to go to-morrow. Oh! the man's mad," she added, in a petty rage, "to think of marrying that horrid⁷ woman."
 
"Well, you have had your chance," Audrey said, with a shrug⁸; "and, as I told you, my father has taken his own way. I would rather you had married him."
 
"Then you love me, darling?" cried the effusive⁹ widow, caressingly¹⁰.
 
"No, I don't," rejoined the girl, removing a pair of fond arms which had been thrown round her neck; "but of two evils I choose the least.
 
"You would make a better Lady Branwin than Miss Pearl."
 
"I'm sure I should," assented¹¹ Mrs. Mellop, with vigour¹², although she was rather daunted¹³ by the refusal of Audrey to accept her advances. "Oh! with all that money I would enjoy myself. And if I married your father, Audrey, I should get him to let you marry Mr. Shawe."
 
"You have no influence with papa, Mrs. Mellop. However, you are no worse off than you were when you came here."
 
"Oh! but I am," cried Mrs. Mellop, quite forgetting the jewellery and clothes that she had bought on the credit of her host's name. "Think of what people will say. My name has been coupled with Sir Joseph's, and it is a shame that he should behave so cruelly. But I shan't submit quietly to seeing him carried off by that woman," raged the widow, walking up and down biting her handkerchief. "I shall tell what I know."
 
"What do you know?"
 
"I know that Sir Joseph goes out night after night prowling about the streets. Ugh! the horrid old man."
 
"How dare you!" cried Audrey, flaming up. "Papa goes to help the poor."
 
Mrs. Mellop laughed contemptuously. "Sir Joseph never helped a single poor person in his life," she said sneeringly¹⁴. "He goes out for no good purpose, you may be sure. Why, he was out on the night his wife was murdered," hinted Mrs. Mellop, malignantly¹⁵. "I believe he had something to do with the matter."
 
Audrey had no reason to be fond of her father, who had always treated her selfishly. But this unfounded accusation¹⁶ was too much for her. She sprang at the little widow and shook her. "How dare you talk in that way?" she said in a cold, hard voice. "You can't connect my father with--"
 
"Oh, can't I?" interrupted Mrs. Mellop, extricating¹⁷ herself from the girl's grasp with a shriek¹⁸. "Why, when I was waiting in Walpole Lane on that night I saw your father on the other side of the road."
 
"You are a fool!" said Miss Branwin, trying to conceal¹⁹ her agitation²⁰. "Even if you saw papa, that proves nothing. And you had better hold your tongue, or you will get into trouble."
 
Mrs. Mellop ran to the door of the room, so as to avoid another shaking. "I shall get Sir Joseph into trouble," she said spitefully. "He shan't play fast and loose with poor little me. I shall go back home to-day."
 
"Had you not better see papa?" asked Audrey, ironically, "and say what you intend to do?"
 
"I know what I intend to do," retorted the widow, tossing her head, "and it won't be pleasant for Sir Joseph when he knows. You're a horrid girl, Audrey, and worthy²¹ of your common father, who is only the son of a labourer, when all is said and done. I decline to associate with such riff-raff, so good-day to both of you." And Mrs. Mellop, bursting with spite, swept out of the room in what she conceived was a grand way.
 
Audrey shrugged²² her shoulders when the little woman disappeared, as she regarded the hinted accusation as merely due to spite; and without doubt it was, as Mrs. Mellop could not possibly prove Branwin's complicity in the crime. Sir Joseph certainly might have been in Walpole Lane, although Audrey did not think that this was probable. Yet, even if he had been, his presence, as the girl had already observed, proved absolutely nothing.
 
When Mrs. Mellop took her departure, bag and baggage--which she did in the afternoon--Audrey wended her way to Kensington Gardens to keep the three o'clock appointment with Ralph Shawe; but although she waited for over an hour he did not make his appearance. This omission²³ made Audrey confident that there was something wrong, as it was not like Ralph to evade²⁴ a meeting. Lately she had noted²⁵ his unwillingness²⁶ to answer questions connected with the search for Lady Branwin's murderer; and now that he so pointedly²⁷ avoi............