ke with some authority in his tone, "there you
are mistaken; that is impossible."

"Ah, and why?"

"The girl you allude to had bright golden hair, something which the
woman who lived in my house did not possess."

"Indeed. I thought you had never noticed the woman who sewed for you,
sir,--did not know how she looked?"

"I should have noticed her if she had had such hair as the girl you
speak of."

Mr. Gryce smiled and opened his pocketbook.

"There is a sample of her hair, sir," said he, taking out a thin strand
of brilliant hair and showing it to the gentleman before him. "Bright
you see, and golden as that of the unfortunate creature you talked with
the other night."

Mr. Blake stooped forward and lifted it with a hand that visibly
trembled. "Where did you get this?" asked he at last, clenching it to
his breast with sudden passion.

"From out of the comb which the girl had been using the night before."

The imperious man flung it hastily from him.

"We waste our time," said he, looking Mr. Gryce intently in the face.
"All that you have said does not account for your presence here nor the
tone you have used while addressing me. What are you keeping back? I am
not a man to be trifled with."

Mr. Gryce rose to his feet. "You are right," said he, and he gave a
short glance in my direction. "All that I have said would not perhaps
justify me in this intrusion, if--" he looked again towards me. "Do you
wish me to continue?" he asked.

Mr. Blake's intent look deepened. "I see no reason why you should not
utter the whole," said he. "A good story loses nothing by being told
to the end. You wish to say something about my journey to Schoenmaker's
house, I suppose."

Mr. Gryce gravely shook his head.

"What, you can let such a mystery as that go without a word?"

"I am not here to discuss mysteries that have no connection with the
sewing-girl in whose cause I am interested."

"Then," said Mr. Blake, turning for the first time upon my superior with
all the dignified composure for which he was eminent, "it is no
longer necessary for us to prolong this interview. I have allowed, nay
encouraged you to state in the plainest terms what it was you had or
imagined you had against me, knowing that my actions of late, seen by
those who did not possess the key to them, must have seemed a little
peculiar. But when you say you have no interest in any mystery
disconnected with the girl who has lived the last few months in