"
Ezra Jennings took up his notes from the table, and placed them in my
hands.
"Mr. Blake," he said, "if you read those notes now, by the light which
my questions and your answers have thrown on them, you will make two
astounding discoveries concerning yourself. You will find--First, that
you entered Miss Verinder's sitting-room and took the Diamond, in a
state of trance, produced by opium. Secondly, that the opium was
given to you by Mr. Candy--without your own knowledge--as a practical
refutation of the opinions which you had expressed to him at the
birthday dinner."
I sat with the papers in my hand completely stupefied.
"Try and forgive poor Mr. Candy," said the assistant gently. "He has
done dreadful mischief, I own; but he has done it innocently. If you
will look at the notes, you will see that--but for his illness--he would
have returned to Lady Verinder's the morning after the party, and would
have acknowledged the trick that he had played you. Miss Verinder would
have heard of it, and Miss Verinder would have questioned him--and the
truth which has laid hidden for a year would have been discovered in a
day."
I began to regain my self-possession.
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