a person of acute hearing."

Miss Thorne sat motionless, waiting.

"All this means--what?" she inquired, at length.

"I'll trouble you, please, to return the money," requested Mr. Grimm
courteously. "No reason appears why you should have taken it. But I'm
not seeking reasons, nor am I seeking disagreeable publicity--only the
money."

"It seems to me you attach undue importance to the handkerchief," she
objected.

"That's a matter of opinion," Mr. Grimm remarked. "It would be useless,
even tedious, to attempt to disprove a burglar theory, but against it is
the difficulty of entrance, the weight of the gold, the ingenious method
of opening the safe, and the assumption that not more than six persons
knew the money was in the safe; while a person in the house _might_ have
learned it in any of a dozen ways. And, in addition, is the fact that
the handkerchief is odd, therefore noticeable. A lace expert assures me
there's probably not another like it in the world."

He stopped. Miss Thorne's eyes sparkled and a smile seemed to be tugging
at the corners of her mouth. She spread out the handkerchief on her
knees.

"You could identify this again, of course?" she queried.

"Yes."

She thoughtfully crumpled up the bit of lace in both hands, then opened
them. There were two handkerchiefs now--they were identical.

"Which is it, please?" she asked.

If Mr. Grimm was disappointed there was not a trace of it on his face.
She laughed outright, gleefully, mockingly, then, demurely:

"Pardon me! You see, it's absurd. The handkerchief the butler restored
to me at dinner, after I lost one in the senor's office, might have been
either of these, or one of ten other duplicates in my room, all given to
me by her Maj--I mean," she corrected quickly, "by a friend in Europe."
She was silent for a moment. "Is that all?"

"No," replied Mr. Grimm gravely, decisively. "I'm not satisfied. I shall
insist upon the return of the money, and if it is not forthcoming I dare
say Count di Rosini, the Italian ambassador, would be pleased to give
his personal check rather than have the matter become public." She
started to interrupt; he went on. "In any event you will be requested to
leave the country."

Then, and not until then, a decided change came over Miss Thorne's face.
A deeper color leaped to her cheeks, the smile faded from her lips, and
there was a flash of uneasiness in her eyes.

"But if I am innocent?" she protested.

"You must