e anything. He's the man to whom
you'll have to explain ze loss of ze diamonds. He'll be here to-night
for dinner, so you'd better get your story ready."

"What can I say?"

"Say that in ze panic your belt worked loose, you had to dive into ze
water. When you were dragged into ze lifeboat the belt was gone, do
you understand?"

"Yes--but will they believe it?"

"They must believe it. There'll be an awful fuss, of course, but
they'll get over it. No suspicion can attach to you."

"He's coming to-night--this man Parker?"

"Yes, to-night. He'll be here for dinner. He----"

Before the valet could complete the sentence there was a knock on the
door and Helen outside called out:

"May I come in?"

Instantly the valet jumped up and assumed once more his deferential
demeanor. The gambler hurriedly shut the bureau drawers and put on the
blue spectacles.

The door opened and Helen entered.

Alert as the Frenchman was, he was not quick enough to quite conceal
from the wife that his present obsequious manner had been suddenly
assumed for her benefit directly she had entered the room. She had
overheard voices, as she reached the landing, and the abrupt manner in
which these sounds had ceased was not entirely natural. It had also
seemed to her that the valet's tone had had a ring of familiarity about
it which she had never known it to have before. Could it be possible
that they were discussing matters which were to be kept from her? If
so, her husband already had secrets in which not she but his valet
shared. She recalled Keralio's cynical smile, as he had whispered:
"Husbands only tell their wives half." Perhaps he had spoken the
truth. Perhaps at this very moment she was degraded, insulted in her
womanhood by a man who was secretly unloyal to her. The very thought
went through her like a knife-thrust. All her life, every hour she had
devoted to her husband. Even now she did not like to even harbor a
shade of distrust, but his strange behavior since his return, this
earnest conversation behind closed doors with a menial she despised and
distrusted--all this could not but add to her anxiety. Calmly, she
asked:

"Have you finished with Francois, dear? We need him downstairs."

The valet himself answered the question:

"_Oui_, madame. I was just coming."

Bowing politely, he turned on his heel, and, with a significant glance
at Handsome, which his mistress did not notice, he left the room.
Hele