throat.
'It was there. Where is it now?'

"I told her I hadn't seen any envelope, which was perfectly true. She
described it: quite a big, long envelope, made of linen, and sealed up
with several red seals. I swore over again I hadn't seen an envelope of
any description. At last she had to believe me. But the worst was to
come. 'Did you leave the room, for so much as a second, after I left
you?' she asked, with her eyes on my face. I told her I hadn't stirred
outside the door; but what I was scared of came next: 'Did any one come
in?'"

"Oh, lovey, I hope you didn't have to tell a falsehood?"

"That depends on what you call a falsehood," said Miss Blackburne. "I
hate fibs as much as you do. But it was an awful fix!"

"It was," Mums agreed.

"You see," Ellen went on, to make her position clear, "I had asked Mr.
Sands not to let his wife know I'd called him in. Later, he pressed that
money on me, and I accepted it. I felt as if it had bought me, body and
soul. When he stood by the table, he must have seen that envelope, and
taken it. Well, now, I ask you, could I give him away?"

"I don't see how you could," wailed the old lady.

"Neither did I. 'Did any one come in?' I echoed, when Mrs. Sands put the
question. 'Wouldn't I have mentioned it to you the first thing, if any
one had?' Was that a falsehood, or wasn't it?"

"It was a prevarication," answered Mrs. Blackburne, "and I think I
should have done the same thing."

"Thank goodness!" sighed Ellen. "That's what I wanted to know. You don't
blame me, then?"

"I feel you acted for the best. And it's done now!"

"Yes, it's done, and can't be undone," the pearl-stringer echoed.

XXIV

ROGER'S APPOINTMENT AT THE CLUB

Roger Sands dined alone at his club that night. Many men hailed him as
he came in, very late, and in sixty seconds he received six invitations
to dine. He refused them all, however.

It was with the hope of meeting a certain man that Roger had gone to the
club. He had excused himself to Beverley on the plea of an appointment,
because he had wanted to be alone, and had no intention of dining
anywhere.

It was upon an impulse that he had taken the sealed envelope addressed
to Justin O'Reilly. Afterward, he felt that his whole course of conduct,
from the moment he had entered the room till the moment he had left the
flat, was radically wrong. He ought, perhaps, to have shown himself to
Beverley when she came in, despite Miss Blackburne's