her's name.
He made no dissent and I think I can persuade him that I would do much
better work as Miss Ayers than as the too well-known Miss Van Arsdale."

"You have great powers of persuasion. But may you not meet people at the
hotel who know you?"

"I shall try to avoid people; and, if my identity is discovered, its
effect or non-effect upon one we find it difficult to mention will give
us our clue. If he has no guilty interest in the crime, my connection
with it as a witness will not disturb him. Besides, two days of
unsuspicious acceptance of me as Miss Grey's nurse are all I want.
I shall take immediate opportunity, I assure you, to make the test I
mentioned. But how much confidence you will have to repose in me! I
comprehend all the importance of my undertaking, and shall work as if my
honor, as well as yours, were at stake."

"I am sure you will." Then for the first time in my life I was glad that
I was small and plain rather than tall and fascinating like so many of
my friends, for he said: "If you had been a triumphant beauty, depending
on your charms as a woman to win people to your will, we should never
have listened to your proposition or risked our reputation in your
hands. It is your wit, your earnestness and your quiet determination
which have impressed us. You see I speak plainly. I do so because I
respect you. And now to business."

Details followed. After these were well understood between us, I
ventured to say: "Do you object--would it be asking too much--if I
requested some enlightenment as to what facts you have discovered
about Mr. Grey which go to substantiate my theory? I might work more
intelligently."

"No, Miss Van Arsdale, you would not work more intelligently, and you
know it. But you have the natural curiosity of one whose very heart is
bound up in this business. I could deny you what you ask but I won't,
for I want you to work with quiet confidence, which you would not do if
your mind were taken up with doubts and questions. Miss Van Arsdale, one
surmise of yours was correct. A man was sent that night to the Ramsdell
house with a note from Miss Grey. We know this because he boasted of it
to one of the bell-boys before he went out, saying that he was going to
have a glimpse of one of the swellest parties of the season. It is also
true that this man was Mr. Grey's valet, an old servant who came over
with him from England. But what adds weight to all this and makes us
regard the whole a