THE WOMAN IN THE BIG HAT
"As you say, Miss Löwenthal," he rejoined, "the police would have found all this out within the next few hours. Once your connection with the murdered man was known to us, the record of your past and his becomes an easy one to peruse. No doubt, too," he added insinuatingly, "our men would soon have been placed in possession of the one undisputable proof of your complete innocence with regard to that fateful afternoon spent at Mathis' café."
"What is that?" she queried blandly.
"An alibi."
"You mean, where I was during the time that Mark was being murdered in a tea shop?"
"Yes," said the chief.
"I was out for a walk," she replied quietly.
"Shopping, perhaps?"
"No."
"You met some one who would remember the circumstance—or your servants could say at what time you came in?"
"No," she repeated dryly; "I met no one, for I took a brisk walk on Primrose Hill. My two servants could only say that I went out at three o'clock that afternoon and returned after five."
There was silence in the little office for a moment or two. I could hear the scraping of the pen with which the chief was idly scribbling geometrical figures on his blotting pad.
Lady Molly was quite still. Her large, luminous
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