idn't lock the gate at the bottom of the garden, because it won't
lock," said Audrey. "And so he didn't keep me from wandering in." She felt
rather disappointed that Aguilar should once more have escaped her reproof
and that the dream of his double life should have vanished away, but she
was determined to prove that he was not perfect.

"Well, I don't know about that," said Miss Ingate. "It wouldn't startle me
to hear that he knew you were intending to come. All I know is that Miss
Foley's been here for several days. Not a soul knows except me and Aguilar.
And it seems to get safer every day. She does venture about the house now,
though she never goes into the garden while it's light. It was Aguilar had
the idea of putting this room straight for her."

"And it was he who cut the bread-and-butter," added Jane Foley.

"And this was to be our first tea-party!" Miss Ingate half shrieked. "I'd
come--I do come, you know, to keep an eye on things as you asked me--I'd
come, and we were just having a cosy little chat in the tank-room.
Aguilar's gone to Colchester to get a duplicate key of the front gates. He
left me his, so I could get in and lock up after myself, and he put the
water on to boil before leaving. I said to Miss Foley, I said, up in the
tank-room: 'Was that a ring at the door?' But she said it wasn't."

"I've been a little deaf since I was in prison," said Jane Foley.

"And now we come down and find you here! I--I hope I've done right." This,
falteringly, from Miss Ingate.

"Of course you have, you silly old thing," Audrey reassured her. "It's
splendid!"

"Whenever I think of the police I laugh," said Miss Ingate in an unsettled
voice. "I can't help it. They can't possibly suspect. And they're looking
everywhere, everywhere! I can't help laughing." And suddenly she burst
into tears.

"Oh! Now! Winnie, dear. Don't spoil it all!" Audrey protested, jumping up.

Madame Piriac, who had hitherto maintained the most complete passivity,
restrained her.

"Leave her tranquil!" murmured Madame Piriac in French. "She is not
spoiling it. On the contrary! One is content to see that she is a woman!"

And then Miss Ingate laughed, and blushed, and called herself names.

"And so you haven't had my letter," said she. "I wish you had had it. But
what is this yachting business? I never heard of such goings-on. Is it your
yacht? This world is getting a bit too wonderful for me."

The answer to these questions was cut shor