e must clear up the room, and have
everything ship-shape in an hour. But Kit's anger grew as Churn
insisted. "I know why you're mad to get to the Grand Central," she flung
at him. "Didn't you s'pose I noticed the name on the candy box. Bah! I
ain't a fool. You said you was sick of bein' boxed up with me. That put
me wise."

Churn protested innocence, and went off jauntily, but Clo looked for
developments. "Kit's mum, to put Churn off the track," she thought. "But
she means to follow him. She's bought no handbag. She can't very well
take the pearls."

Clo had read a paragraph concerning Mr. and Mrs. Roger Sands. It
referred to the "house-warming party" they were giving at their "lately
acquired cottage in Newport." Apparently the affair had been mentioned
before in the column devoted to "Society" news, but Clo had missed it.
The allusion to the "house-warming," and dinner dance set Clo's brain
whirling. Angel would be expected by her husband to wear the queen's
pearls. If he already guessed the secret, this might be a plan to force
his wife's hand. Beverley feared him. Clo had seen that. Angel must have
the pearls for to-morrow night. And they must be strung, ready to wear,
or they would be useless to her, arriving at the last moment. The girl
would have been at her wits' end, but for that quarrel next door. If Kit
did go spying on Churn...!

The door slammed after Churn. A second later Kit was knocking, calling
her new friend by her new nickname: "Kid-Kid! Let me in, quick!"

Clo let her in. Kit was pinning on a wide-brimmed hat, and had her hands
full with a veil, gloves, and parasol. "Tie this veil for me, there's a
good kid!" she panted. "I'm mad at my husband. He's off to flirt with a
beast of a girl in a candy store. They had a mash before we married.
You're goin' to be in all mornin', ain't you?"

"I thought of running out to 'phone a friend of mine," said Clo,
cleverly.

"Don't! There's a 'phone in the house, the room under mine--room of a
pal away till this afternoon. He left his key with Mrs. Mac, and she
lent it to my husband last night so he could borrow some novels for me;
our pal has lots. We've not given the key back, so when I come home I'll
take you down. I want you to stay in while I'm gone. All you need do is
to sit with your door open, and see if any one knocks at mine. And I've
got the key. But it's the same as every old key; 'tain't a special one
like Ch----like our pal's. If a stranger calls