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"I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night.

Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room,

slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which

leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right

through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the

coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he

bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but

there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all

other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had

hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming

downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you

about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover,

which was all perfectly true.