rsday next when Mr. Harold Van Gilt calls upon you to see your
collection you will sell it to him for not less than eight thousand
dollars."

"Aha!" said I. "I see the scheme."

"This you will immediately remit to me here," she continued, excitedly.
"Mr. Van Gilt will pay cash."

I laughed. "Why eight thousand?" I demanded. "Are you living beyond
your--ah--income?"

"No," she answered, "but next month's rent is due Tuesday, and I owe my
servants and tradesmen twenty-five hundred dollars more."

"Even then there will be three thousand dollars over," I put in.

"True, Bunny, true. But I shall need it all, dear. I am invited to the
P. J. D. Gasters on Sunday afternoon to play bridge," Henriette
explained. "We must prepare for emergencies."

I returned to New York on the boat that night, and by Wednesday was
safely ensconced in very beautifully furnished bachelor quarters near
Gramercy Square, where on Thursday Mr. Harold Van Gilt called to see my
collection of jades which I was selling because of a contemplated
five-year journey into the East. On Friday Mr. Van Gilt took possession
of the collection, and that night a check for eight thousand dollars
went to Mrs. Van Raffles at Newport. Incidentally, I passed two thousand
dollars to my own credit. As I figured it out, if Van Gilt was willing
to pay ten thousand dollars for the stuff, and Henriette was willing to
take eight thousand dollars for it, nobody was the loser by my pocketing
two thousand dollars--unless, perhaps, it was Mr. and Mrs. Constant
Scrappe who owned the goods. But that was none of my affair. I played
straight with the others, and that was all there was to it as far as I
was concerned.

III

THE ADVENTURE OF MRS. GASTER'S MAID

Two days after my bargain with Mr. Harold Van Gilt, in which he acquired
possession of the Scrappe jades and Mrs. Van Raffles and I shared the
proceeds of the ten thousand dollars check, I was installed at Bolivar
Lodge as head-butler and steward, my salary to consist of what I could
make out of it on the side, plus ten per cent. of the winnings of my
mistress. It was not long before I discovered that the job was a
lucrative one. From various tradesmen of the town I received presents of
no little value in the form sometimes of diamond scarf-pins, gold link
sleeve-buttons, cases of fine wines for my own use, and in one or two
instances checks of substantial value. There was also what was called a
steward's rebate