elf! What made you do that?"

"What made me first come here and ask you to help me, Mr. Dexter?"

He dropped his hands, and looked at me. I saw in his eyes, not amazement
only, but alarm.

"Is it possible," he exclaimed, "that you won't let that miserable
matter rest even yet? Are you still determined to penetrate the mystery
at Gleninch?"

"I am still determined, Mr. Dexter; and I still hope that you may be
able to help me."

The old distrust that I remembered so well darkened again over his face
the moment I said those words.

"How can I help you?" he asked. "Can I alter facts?" He stopped. His
face brightened again, as if some sudden sense of relief had come to
him. "I did try to help you," he went on. "I told you that Mrs. Beauly's
absence was a device to screen herself from suspicion; I told you that
the poison might have been given by Mrs. Beauly's maid. Has reflection
convinced you? Do you see something in the idea?"

This return to Mrs. Beauly gave me my first chance of leading the talk
to the right topic.

"I see nothing in the idea," I answered. "I see no motive. Had the maid
any reason to be an enemy to the late Mrs. Eustace?"

"Nobody had any reason to be an enemy to the late Mrs. Eustace!" he
broke out, loudly and vehemently. "She was all goodness, all kindness;
she never injured any human creature in thought or deed. She was a saint
upon earth. Respect her memory! Let the martyr rest in her grave!" He
covered his face again with his hands, and shook and shuddered under the
paroxysm of emotion that I had roused in him.

Ariel suddenly and softly left her stool, and approached me.

"Do you see my ten claws?" she whispered, holding out her hands. "Vex
the Master again, and you will feel my ten claws on your throat!"

Benjamin rose from his seat: he had seen the action, without hearing the
words. I signed to him to keep his place. Ariel returned to her stool,
and looked up again at her master.

"Don't cry," she said. "Come on. Here are the strings. Tease me again.
Make me screech with the smart of it."

He never answered, and never moved.

Ariel bent her slow mind to meet the difficulty of attracting his
attention. I saw it in her frowning brows, in her colorless eyes looking
at me vacantly. On a sudden, she joyfully struck the open palm of one of
her hands with the fist of the other. She had triumphed. She had got an
idea.

"Master!" she cried. "Master! You haven't told me a story for ever