n Violet Maynard's eyes. Violet
had been consistently kind to her, and Louise, selfish though she was to
the core, was not wholly ungrateful. She had deceived herself into the
belief that she was about to do her mistress a genuine service, but it
was characteristic of her that she rather enjoyed the prospect of
inflicting pain in the process.

"I should so like to consult you, mees, about an affair of my own," she
began hesitatingly. There was no need for the hesitation, mademoiselle
having been carefully coached for the part she was to play no later than
that afternoon, when she had paid another surreptitious visit to The
Hut. But a shy modesty was a weapon in her equipment for the fray.

Violet looked up quickly. The note of diffidence was unusual. "Of
course, Louise, you can ask me anything," she said, wondering why the
Abigail's gaze was so swiftly averted. "I should have thought, though,
that you are much more capable of managing your affairs than I am."

The Frenchwoman contrived to show deprecation in the twirl she gave to
the silver hair-brush. "In small things, mees, perhaps," she answered.
"But this is not small, the thing in which I beg you to advise. It is an
affair of the 'eart, and an affair of murderre--the murderre of the
gentleman who was killed on the marsh."

Violet with difficulty repressed a smile. The subject was a gruesome
one, but, serene in her own love idyll, she had really paid very little
attention to it. "You don't mean to tell me, Louise, that you killed
that unfortunate man because he did not appreciate your charms?"

Mademoiselle was on her dignity at once; moreover, having marked down
higher game, she could afford to be quite genuine in her repudiation of
any partiality for Mr. Levi Levison.

"Mees will pardon her devoted maid for saying that it is hardly a
subject for jest," came her prompt rebuke. "The shoe was what you call
on the other foot. Mr. Levison, he admire me greatly, but I not think
ver' moosh of 'im. All the same, he tells me things, and among others he
tell me who it was he going to meet on the marsh. I blame myself for not
having approach the police about it, and I desire to ask you, mees, if
it is now too late."

Violet grew suddenly grave. A responsibility was being thrust upon her
which she would have avoided if she could, but she felt it her duty to
accept. Louise was a stranger in a strange land, the laws of which she
could not be expected to understand, and w