her upstairs.

Bewildered and displeased at this bizarre situation which had been
thrust upon me, I ushered Katie into the living room and removed her
hat and coat. She trembled violently.

I went to the dining room and from a decanter in the sideboard poured
a glass of wine and, bringing it back, pressed it to her lips. She
drank it, and the color gradually came back to her face and the
twitching of her muscles lessened.

When she was calmer I took her hands in mine and, looking her full
in the face in the manner which I had sometimes used to quiet an
hysterical pupil, I said slowly:

"Listen to me, Katie. You are not going to be put in prison. Mr.
Graham will not harm you in the least. But he wishes to talk to you,
and you must listen to what he has to say."

Her answer was to seize my hand and cover it with tearful kisses. I
detest any exhibition of emotion, and this girl's utter abandonment
to whatever grief or terror was hers irritated me. But I tried not to
show my feelings. I merely patted her head and said:

"Come, Katie, you must stop this and listen to Mr. Graham."

Katie obediently wiped her eyes and sat up very straight.

"I am all right now," she said quaveringly. "He can come. I tell him
everything."

Still very nervous but calmer than she had been, Katie remained quiet
when I raised my voice to reach Dicky waiting in the adjoining room.

"Oh, Dicky," I called, "you may come now."

Dicky drew a low chair in front of the couch where we sat.

"Tell me first, Katie," he said kindly, "why do you think I want to
put you in prison? Because of the money? Never mind that. I want to
talk to you of something else."

But Katie was hysterically tugging at the neck of her gown. From
inside her bodice she took a tiny chamois skin bag, and ripping it
open took out a carefully folded bill and handed it to Dicky.

"I never spend that money," she said. "I never mean to steal it. But
I had to go away queeck from your flat and I never, never dare come
back, give you the money. After two month, send my cousin to the flat,
but he say you move, no know where. There I always keep the money
here. I think maybe some time I find out where you live and write a
letter to you, send the money."

Dicky took the bill and unfolded it curiously. A brown stain ran
irregularly across one-half of it.

"Well, I'll be eternally blessed," he ejaculated, "if it isn't the
identical bill I gave her. Ten-dollar bills were not so p