ur," said Celestine, as she crossed the small
room. "I hope that monsieur will catch the assassin of Monsieur
Manderson.... But I not regret him too much," she added with sudden and
amazing violence, turning round with her hand on the knob of the outer
door. She set her teeth with an audible sound, and the color rose in her
small, dark face. English departed from her. "Je ne le regrette pas du
tout, du tout!" she cried with a flood of words. "Madame--ah! je me
jetterais au feu pour madame--une femme si charmante, si adorable. Mais
un homme comme, monsieur--maussade, boudeur, impassible! Ah, non!--de ma
vie! J'en avais pardessus la tete, de monsieur! Ah! vrai! Est-ce
insupportable, tout de meme, qu'il existe des types comme ca? Je vous
jure que--"

"Finissez ce chahut, Celestine!" Trent broke in sharply. Celestine's
tirade had brought back the memory of his student days in Paris with a
rush. "En voila une scene! C'est rasant, vous savez. Faut rentrer ca,
mademoiselle. Du reste, c'est bien imprudent, croyez-moi. Hang it! have
some common sense! If the inspector downstairs heard you saying that
kind of thing, you would get into trouble. And don't wave your fists
about so much; you might hit something. You seem," he went on more
pleasantly, as Celestine grew calmer under his authoritative eye, "to be
even more glad than other people that Mr. Manderson is out of the way. I
could almost suspect, Celestine, that Mr. Manderson did not take as much
notice of you, as you thought necessary and right."

"A peine s'il m'avait regarde!" Celestine answered simply.

"Ca, c'est un comble!" observed Trent. "You are a nice young woman for a
small tea-party, I don't think. A star upon your birthday burned, whose
fierce, serene, red, pulseless planet never yearned in heaven,
Celestine. Mademoiselle, I am busy. Bon jour. You certainly are a
beauty!"

Celestine took this as a scarcely-expected compliment. The surprise
restored her balance. With a sudden flash of her eyes and teeth at Trent
over her shoulder, the lady's maid opened the door and swiftly
disappeared.

Trent, left alone in the little bedroom, relieved his mind with two
forcible descriptive terms in Celestine's language, and turned to his
problem.

He took the pair of shoes which he had already examined, and placed them
on one of the two chairs in the room, then seated himself on the other
opposite to this. With his hands in his pockets he sat with eyes fixed
upon those tw