hardly do better than put the
case in the hands of these gentlemen. They are apt to be of a good
order of intelligence when selected to serve bankers, you know."

"I understand," she replied in her cool, sweet voice.

She went to meet the men in the middle of the room. Duchemin turned
back to the window, where, standing in the recess, with the light
behind him, he could watch and reflect without his interest or
emotions, becoming too apparent. And he was grateful for that moment of
respite in which to compose and prepare himself. Within an hour, he
knew, within a day or so at most, he must be under arrest, charged with
the theft of the Montalais jewels, damned by his yesterday as much as
by every turn of circumstantial evidence....

The men whom Jean ushered in proved to be, outwardly, what Duchemin had
expected: of a class only too well-known to him, plain men of the
people, unassuming, well-trained and informed, sceptical; not
improbably shrewd hands in the game of thief-taking.

Saluting Madame de Montalais with calculated ceremony, one acting as
spokesman offered to present their credentials. Duchemin had a start of
surprise to dissemble when he saw the woman wave these aside.

"It is not necessary, messieurs," she said. "I regret very much to have
inconvenienced you, although of course it will make no difference in
your bill; but I have brought you here to no purpose. The necessity for
my contemplated journey no longer exists."

There were expressions of surprise to which she put an end with the
words, accompanied by a charming smile: "Frankly, messieurs, I am
afraid you will have to make allowances for the traditional
inconsistency of my sex: I have simply changed my mind."

There was nothing more to be said. Openly more than a little mystified,
the men withdrew.

The smile with which she dismissed them lingered, delightful and
enigmatic, as Eve recognised the stupefaction with which Duchemin moved
to remonstrate with her.

"Madame!" he cried in a low voice of wonder and protest--"why did you
do that? Why let them go without telling them--?"

"I must have had a reason, don't you think, Monsieur Duchemin?"

"I don't understand you, madame. You treat the loss of jewels as if it
must be a secret private to ourselves, to you and to me!"

"Possibly that is my wish, monsieur." He gave a gesture of
bewilderment. "Perhaps," she continued, meeting his blank stare with
eyes in which amusement gave place to a l