in box and privet; the
house, of the pillared colonial type, crowned a series of terraces. A
long pergola, with pillars topped by red urns, curved gradually through
the garden toward the mansion. Armitage followed a side road along the
brick partition wall and contemplated the inner landscape. The sharp snap
of a gardener's shears far up the slope was the only sound that reached
him. It was a charming place, and he yielded to a temptation to explore
it. He dropped over the wall and strolled away through the garden, the
smell of warm earth, moist from the day's light showers, and the faint
odor of green things growing, sweet in his nostrils. He walked to the far
end of the pergola, sat down on a wooden bench, and gave himself up to
reverie. He had been denounced as an impostor; he was on Claiborne soil;
and the situation required thought.

It was while he thus pondered his affairs that Shirley, walking over the
soft lawn from a neighboring estate, came suddenly upon him.

Her head went up with surprise and--he was sure--with disdain. She
stopped abruptly as he jumped to his feet.

"I am caught--_in flagrante delicto_! I can only plead guilty and pray
for mercy."

"They said--they said you had gone to Mexico?" said Shirley
questioningly.

"Plague take the newspapers! How dare they so misrepresent me!" he
laughed.

"Yes, I read those newspaper articles with a good deal of interest. And
my brother--"

"Yes, your brother--he is the best fellow in the world!"

She mused, but a smile of real mirth now played over her face and lighted
her eyes.

"Those are generous words, Mr. Armitage. My brother warned me against you
in quite unequivocal language. He told me about your match-box--"

"Oh, the cigarette case!" and he held it up. "It's really mine--and I'm
going to keep it. It was very damaging evidence. It would argue strongly
against me in any court of law."

"Yes, I believe that is true." And she looked at the trinket with frank
interest.

"But I particularly do not wish to have to meet that charge in any court
of law, Miss Claiborne."

She met his gaze very steadily, and her eyes were grave. Then she asked,
in much the same tone that she would have used if they had been very old
friends and he had excused himself for not riding that day, or for not
going upon a hunt, or to the theater:

"Why?"

"Because I have a pledge to keep and a work to do, and if I were
forced to defend myself from the charge of bei