m his bath and in pale
blue pajamas, Derry listened to what the old man had to say to him.

Bronson sat on the edge of a straight-backed chair with Muffin at his
knees. "From the first day I had a feeling that she wasn't
just--straight. I don't know why, but I felt it. She had one way with
the General and another with us servants. But I didn't mind that, not
much, until she went into your mother's room."

"My mother's room?" sharply. "What was she doing there, Bronson?"

"That's what I am going to tell you, sir. You know that place on the
third floor landing, where I sits and looks through at your father when
he ain't quite himself, and won't let me come in his room? Well, there
was one night that I was there and watched her--"

Derry's quick frown rebuked him. "You shouldn't have done that,
Bronson."

"I had a feeling, sir, that things were going wrong, and that the
General wasn't always himself. I shouldn't ever have said a thing to
you, Mr. Derry," earnestly, "if I hadn't seen what I did."

He cleared his throat. "That first night I saw her open the door
between your father's room and the sitting room, and she did it careful
and quiet like a person does when they don't want anybody to know. The
sitting room was dark, but I went down and stood behind the curtain in
the General's door, and I could see through, and there was a light in
your mother's room and a screen set before it."

"I took a big chance, but I slid into the sitting room, and I could see
her on the other side of the screen, and she had opened the safe behind
the Chinese scroll, and she was trying on your mother's diamonds."

"What!"

Bronson nodded solemnly. "Yes, sir, she had 'em on her head and her
neck and her fingers--."

"You don't mean--that she took anything."

"Oh, no, sir, she's no common thief. But she looked at herself in the
glass and strutted up and down, up and down, up and down, bowing and
smiling like a--fool."

"Then the telephone rang, and I had to get out pretty quick, before she
came to answer it. I went to bed, but I didn't sleep much, and the
next night I watched her again. I watch every night."

Derry considered the situation. "I don't like it at all, Bronson. But
perhaps it was just a woman's vanity. She wanted to see how she
looked."

"Well, she's seen--and she ain't going to be satisfied with that.
She'll want to wear them all the time--"

"Of course, she can't, Bronson. She isn't as silly