y so--what had
transpired between Belle and me.

"How is she now?" I parried. I had concluded that when Miss Belle was
again her normal self, she would rather have our little episode
forgotten.

"Calm as a graven image," was the reply. Grief and anxiety trembled in
Genevieve's voice. "But it is a stony, deathlike sort of calm that
gives me the creeps. The poor girl is distracted. She wants to be
alone; she sent me to you."

"_She_ sent you," said I, with quick interest. This struck me as being
rather curious.

"Oh, I know Belle," said Genevieve. "She probably said some very
bitter things to you; now she 's sorry."

I trusted that the impulsive young lady was experiencing some pangs of
remorse; but before I confided anything, I learned how Genevieve came
to be locked in Belle's room.

Early in the morning Belle had grown quite tranquil, but insisted upon
talking. To humor and soothe her, Genevieve, during their talk,
asserted that I could be depended upon to save Royal. She also
mentioned that I was expected to call.

After breakfast Genevieve had fallen asleep, through sheer weariness.
Belle must have risen cautiously, determined to treat with me herself.
Her impulsive decision was manifestly arrived at after I rang the bell,
because she had had no time to dress.

Soon after, Genevieve had awakened with a start, to find herself locked
in and the bell-button dug out of its socket. She could not summon the
servants without creating an uproar. She soon surmised something of
what Belle had in mind, but never, until she heard the muffled report
of the pistol, had she dreamed that the frenzied girl contemplated
anything so desperate and rash.

Well, I softened the matter as much as I could for Miss Belle, making
it very clear that I realized from the start that she was not
responsible, and that I had been most of the time engaged in calming
her and trying to persuade her to return to her room. I even stretched
a point about the shooting; I feared that Genevieve would never forgive
her for that. I said it had occurred--without intent--while I was
struggling with her; which, after all, was perhaps not far from the
truth.

"Why should Miss Belle have any reason for despising Alexander Burke?"
I asked during our conference, for the girl's patent abhorrence of the
fellow stuck in my mind.

Genevieve's expression became all at once very grave. For a moment she
sat silent, toying with a plait of her ski