nto the study, pried up the roll-top cover of Simon's desk and
pouched a notebook that looked as if it must be valuable. Then I had
still another idea--it seemed a good one then! The house was still,
except for Bates snoring in the pantry. I went out on the piazza and
forced the lock of one of the living-room windows with the dagger.
Mmph! Wish I'd noticed that nick! I thought I was only leaving
evidence of a burglary!

"The next evening I had a snappy talk with Simon. I told him that the
death of old Sherwood--who succeeded in rehabilitating his fortunes
before he died--had taken that particular curse off Leslie, and that
Leslie had told me everything. Simon merely asked me what I was going
to do about it. I suggested divorce--his last chance!--and he turned
it down. Just from meanness and malice, he turned it down. Blame me
for anything you please, but don't sympathize with Simon; he asked for
it!

"I knew a detective was coming on the morrow and I wasn't anxious to
take more chances than I had to. The hour was striking--!

"Don't look at me like that! I won't go on with that part of it!
Harrowing and gruesome, and not at all important.

"I'm afraid I didn't take either the police or you very seriously.
More fool I! As I examined my position it seemed to me that I had left
absolutely no clue, that I was secure from every suspicion. Mmph. I
forgot Janet!

"She and I never had secrets from each other until this affair of Simon
Varr. I had discussed him with her and she understood just what a blot
on society he was, but I had not confessed to playing Destiny! After
the murder, however, she learned of the monk who had been threatening
Simon. She knew I detested him, she knew all my points of view, and
her old mind began to work. Janet's mind is like the mills of the
gods; it grinds slowly but exceeding fine.

"She watched me, questioned me slyly, and presently began a search for
proof of her suspicions. She found the notebook in the back of one of
my bureau drawers, and then she found the disguise in the house below
the hill. She knew the truth!

"She has a Scotch conscience, which appears to be a terrible
affliction! She was horrified at her discovery, almost sickened, but
her loyalty to me rose above every other consideration. If she had
only come to me--! But she didn't; she elected to follow certain
impulses of her own conception.

"The most important thing, according to her strict no