the same time she
was approached by some sort of agent from the family who offered her a
fat compensation."

"It was a matter of sentiment," said Madame Beattie loftily. "You've no
right to say it was a question of money. It is extremely bad taste."

"She had ceased singing," said Alston. "Money meant more to her than the
jewels it would have been inexpedient to display. For by that time, she
didn't want to offend any royal families whatever. So she was bought
off, and she gave up the necklace."

"It is not true," said she. "If it was money I wanted, I could have sold
it."

"Oh, no, I beg your pardon. There would have been difficulties in the
way of selling historic stones; besides there were so many royal
personages concerned in keeping them intact. It might have been very
different when the certain Royal Personage was young enough and
impetuous enough to swear he stood behind you. He'd got to the point
where he might even have sworn he never gave them to you."

She uttered a little hoarse exclamation, a curse, Alston could believe,
in whatever tongue.

"Besides," he continued, "as I just said, Madame Beattie wasn't willing,
on the whole, to offend her royal patrons, though she wasn't singing any
longer. She had a good many favours to ask of the world, and she didn't
want Europe made too hot to hold her."

He paused to rest a moment from his thankless task, and they looked at
each other calmly, yet quite recognising they were at grips.

"You forget," said she, "that I have the necklace at this moment in my
possession. You have seen it and handled it."

"No," said Alston, "I have never seen the necklace. Nobody has seen it
on this side the water. When you came here years ago and got Jeff into
difficulties you brought another necklace, a spurious one, paste, stage
jewels, I daresay, and none of us were clever enough to know the
difference. You said it was the Beattie necklace, and Esther was
hypnotised and--"

"And stole it," Madame Beattie put in, with a real enjoyment now.

"And Jeff was paralysed by loving Esther so much that he didn't look
into it. And as soon as he was out of prison you came here and
hypnotised us all over again. But it's not the necklace."

Madame Beattie put back her head and burst into hoarse and perfectly
spontaneous laughter.

"And it was for you to find it out," she said. "I didn't think you were
so clever, Alston Choate. I didn't know you were clever at all. You
refresh me. G