uts himself into a trap with the fear-maddened wild thing for which
the trap was baited and set. He was steadying himself with a hand on the
table when he said: "Well, you opened the package; what did you find
out?"

"What did I find out?" He heard her half-hesitant repetition of his
query, and for one flitting instant he made sure that he saw the fear of
death in the wide-open eyes that were lifted to his. But the next
instant the eyes were laughing at him, and she was going on confidently.
"Of course, as soon as I untied the string I saw it was money--a lot of
money; and you can imagine that I tied it up again, quickly, and didn't
lose any more time than I could help in putting it away in the safest
place I could think of. Every day since you began to get well, I've been
expecting you to say something about it; but as long as you wouldn't, I
wouldn't."

Slowly the blood came back into the saner channels, and the whispering
demon at his ear grew less articulate. Was she telling the truth? Could
it be possible that she had not opened the packet far enough to see and
read the damning evidence of the printed bank-slips which, in a very
bravado of carelessness, as he now remembered, he had neglected to
remove and destroy? He was searching the dark eyes for the naked soul
behind them when he ventured again.

"You--you and your father--must have thought it very singular that a
sick man should be knocking about the country with so much money carried
carelessly in a suit-case?"

"My father knows nothing about it; nor does any one else. And it wasn't
my place to gossip or to wonder. I found it, and I took care of it for
you. Are you glad, or sorry?"

He took the necessary forward step and stood before her. And his answer
was no answer at all.

"Miss Grierson--Margery--are you telling me the truth?--all of it?" he
demanded, seeking once again to pinion the soul which lay beyond the
deepest depth of the limpid eyes.

Her laugh was as cheerful as a bird song.

"Telling you the truth? How could you suspect me of such a thing! No, my
good friend; no woman ever tells a man the whole truth when she can help
it. I didn't find your money, and I didn't lock it up in poppa's vault:
I am merely playing a part in a deep and diabolical plot to----"

Griswold forgot that he was her poor beneficiary; forgot that she had
taken him in as her guest; forgot, in the mad joy of the reactionary
moment, everything that he should have rememb