49477 Stapleton himself seems to have been capable of jealousy, and when he saw the baronet paying court to the lady, even though it was part of his own plan, still he could not help interrupting with a passionate outburst which revealed the fiery soul which his self-contained manner so cleverly concealed.
49478 By encouraging the intimacy he made it certain that Sir Henry would frequently come to Merripit House, and that he would sooner or later get the opportunity which he desired.
49479 On the day of the crisis, however, his wife turned suddenly against him.
49480 She had learned something of the death of the convict, and she knew that the hound was being kept in the out-house on the evening that Sir Henry was coming to dinner.
49481 She taxed her husband with his intended crime and a furious scene followed, in which he showed her for the first time that she had a rival in his love.
49482 Her fidelity turned in an instant to bitter hatred, and he saw that she would betray him.
49483 He tied her up, therefore, that she might have no chance of warning Sir Henry, and he hoped, no doubt, that when the whole country-side put down the baronet's death to the curse of his family, as they certainly would do, he could win his wife back to accept an accomplished fact, and to keep silent upon what she knew.
49484 In this I fancy that in any case he made a miscalculation, and that, if we had not been there, his doom would none the less have been sealed.
49485 A woman of Spanish blood does not condone such an injury so lightly.
49486 And now, my dear Watson, without referring to my notes, I cannot give you a more detailed account of this curious case.
49487 I do not know that anything essential has been left unexplained.'
49488 'He could not hope to frighten Sir Henry to death, as he had done the old uncle, with his bogie hound.'
49489 'The beast was savage and half-starved.
49490 If its appearance did not frighten its victim to death, at least it would paralyse the resistance which might be offered.'