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"What tiht, I suppose, dearest You'll ask him, won't you?"

"Yes, Auntie I think I'd better lock your door when I go out You won't fancy such things then, will you?"

"Very well, dearest As you think best"

The old voice was beco a er

"Send Charlotte to ain My love to Laurie"

"Yes, Auntie"

The old lady felt the girl's warer a little Then Mrs Baxter lost herself once more

IV

The public bar of the Wheatsheaf Inn was the scene this evening of a lively discussion Soentleman, arrived that day frons upon the gardens of the gentry; others that he was a sort of scientific collector; others, again, that he was a private detective; and since there was no evidence at all, good or bad, in support of any one of these suggestions, a very pretty debate became possible

A silence fell when his step was heard to pass down the stairs and out into the street, and another half an hour later when he returned Then once an

At ten o'clock the ht to disperse holance at the clock Overhead the lighted blind shohere the il; and over the way, beyond the still leafless trees, towered up the twisted chimneys of Mrs Baxter's house No word had been spoken connecting the two, yet one or two of the ue surmise