"But go on, go on. You have not begun to satisfy me yet. You did not stop with finding a motive for the crime I am sure." "Madam, you are a female Shylock; you will have the whole of the bond or none." "We are not here to draw comparisons," I retorted. "Keep to the subject, Mr. Gryce; keep to the subject." He laughed; laid down the little basket he held, took it up again, and finally resumed: "Madam, you are right; we did not stop at finding a motive. Our next step was to collect evidence directly connecting him with the crime." "And you succeeded in this?" My tone was unnecessarily eager, this was all so unaccountable to me; but he did not appear to notice it. "We did. Indeed the evidence against him is stronger than that against his brother. For if we ignore the latter part of Howard's testimony, which was evidently a tissue of lies, what remains against him? Three things: his dogged persistency in not recognizing his wife in the murdered woman; the receiving of the house keys from his brother; and the fact that he was seen on the stoop of his father's house at an unusual hour in the morning following this murder.
