is a proud
spirit. She dried her eyes on a sudden, and spoke out freely, in these
words: "I am not going to cry about it. The other day, father, we were
out walking in the park. A horrid, bold, yellow-haired woman passed us
in an open carriage. She kissed her hand to Marmaduke, and called out
to him, 'How are you, Marmy?' I was so indignant that I pushed him away
from me, and told him to go and take a drive with his lady. He burst out
laughing. 'Nonsense!' he said; 'she has known me for years--you don't
understand our easy London manners.' We have made it up since then; but
I have my own opinion of the creature in the open carriage."

Morally speaking, this was worse than all. But, logically viewed, it
completely failed as a means of accounting for the diamond bracelet and
the splendor of the furniture.

We went on to the uppermost story. It was cut off from the rest of the
house by a stout partition of wood, and a door covered with green baize.

When I tried the door it was locked. "Ha!" says Felicia, "I wanted you
to see it for yourself!" More suspicious proceedings on the part of
my son-in-law! He kept the door constantly locked, and the key in his
pocket. When his wife asked him what it meant, he answered: "My study is
up there--and I like to keep it entirely to myself." After such a reply
as that, the preservation of my daughter's dignity permitted but one
answer: "Oh, keep it to yourself, by all means!"

My previsions, upon this, assumed another form.

I now asked myself--still in connection with my son-in-law's extravagant
expenditure--whether the clew to the mystery might not haply be the
forging of bank-notes on the other side of the baize door. My mind
was prepared for anything by this time. We descended again into the
dining-room. Felicia saw how my spirits were dashed, and came and
perched upon my knee. "Enough of my troubles for to-night, father,"
she said. "I am going to be your little girl again, and we will talk
of nothing but Cauldkirk, until Marmaduke comes back." I am one of the
firmest men living, but I could not keep the hot tears out of my eyes
when she put her arm round my neck and said those words. By good fortune
I was sitting with my back to the lamp; she didn't notice me.

A little after eleven o'clock Marmaduke returned. He looked pale and
weary. But more champagne, and this time something to eat with it,
seemed to set him to rights again--no doubt by relieving him from the
reproaches