look after Mr. Ashleigh. Don't let
him go far away."

Mrs. Rheinholdt breathed a sigh of relief as she greeted her new arrivals.

"Professor Ashleigh, brother of Lord Ashleigh, you know," she explained.
"This is the first house he has been to since his return from South
America. You've heard all about those wonderful discoveries, of
course...."

The Professor made himself universally agreeable in a mild way, and his
presence created even more than the sensation which Mrs. Rheinholdt had
hoped for. In her desire to show him ample honour, she seldom left his
side.

"I am going to take you into my husband's study," she suggested, later on
in the evening. "He has some specimens of beetles--"

"Beetles," the Professor declared, with some excitement, "occupied
precisely two months of my time while abroad. By all means, Mrs.
Rheinholdt!"

"We shall have to go quite to the back of the house," she explained, as
she led him along the darkened passage.

The Professor smiled acquiescently. His eyes rested for a moment upon her
necklace.

"You must really permit me, Mrs. Rheinholdt," he exclaimed, "to admire
your wonderful stones! I am a judge of diamonds, and those three or four
in the centre are, I should imagine, unique."

She held them out to him. The Professor laid the end of the necklace
gently in the palm of his hand and examined them through a horn-rimmed
eyeglass.

"They are wonderful," he murmured,--"wonderful! Why--"

He turned away a little abruptly. They had reached the back of the house
and a door from the outside had just been opened. A man had crossed the
threshold with a coat over his arm, and was standing now looking at them.

"How extraordinary!" the Professor remarked. "Is that you, Craig?"

For a moment there was no answer. The servant was standing in the gloom of
an unlit portion of the passage. His eyes were fixed curiously upon the
diamonds which the Professor had just been examining. He seemed paler,
even, than usual.

"Yes, sir!" he replied. "There is a rain storm, so I ventured to bring
your mackintosh."

"Very thoughtful," the Professor murmured approvingly. "I have a
weakness," he went on, turning to his hostess, "for always walking home
after an evening like this. In the daytime I am content to ride. At night
I have the fancy always to walk."

"We don't walk half enough." Mrs. Rheinholdt sighed, glancing down at her
somewhat portly figure. "Dixon," she added, turning to the footman