"Yes. Of course, he's attacking you directly sometimes, for yourself. But other times—as just this morning—he is more concerned with attacking me through you. Recollect—
"Mr. Manling, the cathedral thief—whoever he was—robbed me first at Ely. Not content with that, he gave me the additional fillip of forcing us to put you, our friend, under suspicion for his theft. But, though I could scarcely feel him even as a mysterious personality, then I—mother and I—met his move with a better one," she raised her head a little proudly and her eyes lighted with a recollection of her triumph, "and we cleared you by putting into your hands the police investigation, which he must have expected to go against you.
"I began to feel this mysterious double of yours even then as a clever, subtle, intangible force. And I have thought that maybe he, too, began to feel me opposing him.
"But at once," the girl continued calmly, as the other watched her in wonder, "you laid
272
