down the corridor behind the hall. He also remembered that the big door
nearest them was shut.

"Well," he said, "it wouldn't do to put anything that wasn't pretty on a
neck like that, and I wonder if you would let me fix it."

The girl made no protest; but though she saw the admiration in the man's
dark eyes as she covertly looked up, it would have pleased her better had
he been a trifle more clumsy. His words and glances were usually bold
enough, but, as he clasped the little brooch on, his fingers were almost
irritatingly deft and steady. Men, she knew, did not make fools of
themselves from a purely artistic appreciation of feminine comeliness.

"Now," she said, slipping away from him with a blush, "I wonder what you
expect for this."

Clavering's eyebrows went up and there was a faint assumption of
haughtiness in his face, which became it.

"Only the pleasure of seeing it where it is. It's a gift," he said.

"Well," said the girl, "that was very kind of you; but you're quite sure
you never gave Miss Torrance anything of this kind?"

"No. I think I told you so."

The maid was not convinced. "But," she said, looking at him sideways, "I
thought you did. She has a little gold chain, very thin, and not like the
things they make now--and just lately she is always wearing it."

"I never saw it."

The girl smiled significantly. "I guess that's not astonishing. She wears
it low down on her neck--and the curious thing is that it lay by and she
never looked at it for ever so long."

Clavering felt that the dollars the trinket had cost him had not been
wasted; but though he concealed his disgust tolerably well, the maid
noticed it. She had, however, vague ambitions, and a scarcely warranted
conviction that, given a fair field, she could prove herself a match for
her mistress.

"Then, if it wasn't you, it must have been the other man," she said.

"The other man?"

"Yes," with a laugh. "The one I took the wallet with the dollars to."

Clavering hoped he had not betrayed his astonishment; but she had seen the
momentary flash in his eyes and the involuntary closing of his hand.

"Now," he said firmly, "that can't be quite straight, and one should be
very careful about saying that kind of thing."

The girl looked at him steadily. "Still, I took a wallet with dollar bills
in it to Mr. Grant--at night. I met him on the bluff, and Miss Torrance
sent them him."

It was possible that Clavering would have heard more h