ions for you."

"How do you know that?"

"You bought the silly thing yourself; correct me if I am wrong."

She did not correct him. She said, "I don't see how you know."

"Ah!" said the burglar, "there we come to another point--my point of
view; we have had yours, but you have not had mine. I wonder if it would
interest you to hear it? It might possibly, simply on the score of
novelty. One hears a very great deal about the feelings of the
householder towards the burglar, but precious little of the feelings of
the burglar towards the householder; and I am not even a common burglar,
as I hope you have recognised. It might interest you to talk the thing
over for a few minutes, and it would be a great privilege and pleasure
to myself. It might not, and in that case I will leave you at once."

Miss Markham hesitated. Then she took a chair by the table and sat down.

"Well," she said, "I will hear what you have to say."

"I have never seen you before to-night. I opened the door and you stood
in the light. In the background were the white walls of the bungalow and
on them good mezzotints after the eighteenth-century masters, and on a
small rosewood table was your bedroom candlestick--Sheffield, and I
should say a very good piece; good Sheffield, as you know, fetches more
than silver nowadays. But it was upon you principally that my attention
was centred. The rest all came in a flash; your grey quaker dress, the
green serge curtains, the copper knocker, everything told the same story
of simplicity and taste. But in your face I read very much more, so much
that was not simple, so much that still perplexes me."

Miss Markham was slightly embarrassed. It was not usual for her to hear
herself discussed. One part of her said this was monumental
impertinence, and she must check it. The other part said that she rather
liked it. It was the other part of her that won. If he had not been an
unusually handsome man, with melancholy blue eyes and a beautiful
respectful manner, perhaps the other part would have won.

She laughed. "I do not see what there is to puzzle you."

"I saw the face of a saint. You have lived absolutely apart from the
world; in a walled-in garden as it were. Now I personally have all the
vices." He took from his pocket a gold cigarette case with another man's
monogram on it, took out a cigarette and lit it. "As I was saying, I
have all the vices, but that does not mean that I am without a very keen
appreciat