ng the false Baron von
Kissel, everything would be spoiled. You see, unfortunately--most
unfortunately--I am not quite without responsibilities, and I have
come down into the mountains, where I hope not to be shot and tossed over
a precipice until I have had time to watch certain people and certain
events a little while. I tried to say as much to Captain Claiborne, but I
saw that my story did not impress him. And now I have said the same thing
to you--"

He waited, gravely watching her, hat in hand.

"And I have stood here and listened to you, and done exactly what Captain
Claiborne would not wish me to do under any circumstances," said Shirley.

"You are infinitely kind and generous--"

"No. I do not wish you to think me either of those things--of course
not!"

Her conclusion was abrupt and pointed.

"Then--"

"Then I will tell you--what I have not told any one else--that I know
very well that you are not the person who appeared at Bar Harbor three
years ago and palmed himself off as the Baron von Kissel."

"You know it--you are quite sure of it?" he asked blankly.

"Certainly. I saw that person--at Bar Harbor. I had gone up from Newport
for a week--I was even at a tea where he was quite the lion, and I am
sure you are not the same person."

Her direct manner of speech, her decisive tone, in which she placed the
matter of his identity on a purely practical and unsentimental plane,
gave him a new impression of her character.

"But Captain Claiborne--"

He ceased suddenly and she anticipated the question at which he had
faltered, and answered, a little icily:

"I do not consider it any of my business to meddle in your affairs with
my brother. He undoubtedly believes you are the impostor who palmed
himself off at Bar Harbor as the Baron von Kissel. He was told so--"

"By Monsieur Chauvenet."

"So he said."

"And of course he is a capital witness. There is no doubt of Chauvenet's
entire credibility," declared Armitage, a little airily.

"I should say not," said Shirley unresponsively. "I am quite as sure that
he was not the false baron as I am that you were not."

Armitage laughed.

"That is a little pointed."

"It was meant to be," said Shirley sternly. "It is"--she weighed the
word--"ridiculous that both of you should be here."

"Thank you, for my half! I didn't know he was here! But I am not exactly
_here_--I have a much, safer place,"--he swept the blue-hilled horizon
with his hand. "Monsieu