nd he had need of all the nerve which had hitherto
made his career so prosperous, to sustain the encounter with the
calmness which alone could carry off the situation. Declaring that the
diamond was in New York, he promised to restore it if the other would
make the sacrifice worth while by continuing to preserve his hitherto
admirable silence concerning him: Mr. Grey responded by granting him
just twenty-four hours; and when Fairbrother said the time was not
long enough and allowed his hand to steal ominously to his breast, he
repeated still more decisively, "Twenty-four hours."

The ex-miner honored bravery. Withdrawing his hand from his breast,
he brought out a note-book instead of a pistol and, in a tone fully as
determined, replied: "The diamond is in a place inaccessible to any one
but myself. If you will put your name to a promise not to betray me for
the thirty-six hours I ask, I will sign one to restore you the diamond
before one-thirty o'clock on Friday."

"I will," said Mr. Grey.

So the promises were written and duly exchanged. Mr. Grey returned to
New York and Fairbrother boarded his launch.

The diamond really was in New York, and to him it seemed more politic to
use it as a means of securing Mr. Grey's permanent silence than to fly
the country, leaving a man behind him who knew his secret and could
precipitate his doom with a word. He would, therefore, go to New York,
play his last great card and, if he lost, be no worse off than he was
now. He did not mean to lose.

But he had not calculated on any inherent weakness in himself,--had not
calculated on Providence. A dish tumbled and with it fell into chaos the
fair structure of his dreams. With the cry of "Grizel! Grizel!" he gave
up his secret, his hopes and his life. There was no retrieval possible
after that. The star of Abner Fairbrother had set.

Mr. Grey and his daughter learned very soon of my relations to Mr.
Durand, but through the precautions of the inspector and my own powers
of self-control, no suspicion has ever crossed their minds of the part I
once played in the matter of the stiletto.

This was amply proved by the invitation Mr. Durand and I have just
received to spend our honeymoon at Darlington Manor.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Woman in the Alcove, by Anna Katharine Green

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMAN IN THE ALCOVE ***

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