hat he expected an answer, I assumed a
mysterious air and quietly remarked:

"If you will come to my house to-morrow I will explain myself. I am not
prepared to more than intimate my discoveries to-day."

But he was not the man to let one off so easily.

"Excuse me," said he, "but matters of this kind do not admit of delay.
The grand jury sits within the week, and any evidence worth presenting
them must be collected at once. I must ask you to be frank with me, Miss
Butterworth."

"And I will be, to-morrow."

"To-day," he insisted, "to-day."

Seeing that I should gain nothing by my present course, I reseated
myself, bestowing upon him a decidedly ambiguous smile as I did so.

"You acknowledge then," said I, "that the old maid can tell you
something after all. I thought you regarded all my efforts in the light
of a jest. What has made you change your mind?"

"Madam, I decline to bandy words. Have you found those rings, or have
you not?"

"I have _not_," said I, "but neither have you, and as that is what I
wanted to make sure of, I will now take my leave without further
ceremony."

Mr. Gryce is not a profane man, but he allowed a word to slip from him
which was not entirely one of blessing. He made amends for it next
moment, however, by remarking:

"Madam, I once said, as you will doubtless remember, that the day would
come when I should find myself at your feet. That day has arrived. And
now is there any other little cherished fact known to the police which
you would like to have imparted to you?"

I took his humiliation seriously.

"You are very good," I rejoined, "but I will not trouble you for any
_facts_,--_those_ I am enabled to glean for myself; but what I should
like you to tell me is this: Whether if you came upon those rings in the
possession of a person known to have been on the scene of crime at the
time of its perpetration, you would not consider them as an
incontrovertible proof of guilt?"

"Undoubtedly," said he, with a sudden alteration in his manner which
warned me that I must muster up all my strength if I would keep my
secret till I was quite ready to part with it.

"Then," said I, with a resolute movement towards the door, "that's the
whole of my business for to-day. Good-morning, Mr. Gryce; to-morrow I
shall expect you."

He made me stop though my foot had crossed the threshold; not by word or
look but simply by his fatherly manner.

"Miss Butterworth," he observed, "the suspicio