he concluded lamely.

"We'll say no more about that. All I suggest is that, until you find
some one worthier of your confidence, if you care to count on me as
an old friend and neighbour--"

"Good Lord!" Nicky-Nan cast a hand to his brow. "You'll excuse my
manners, Miss--but if you'll let me go off an' think it over--"

He turned as if to flee into the house. Then, as if headed off by
the noise of hammering within, he faced about and made across the
bridge for the quay-head and his favourite bollard. There, as a man
in a dream, he found a seat, and vainly for ten minutes strove to
collect and arrange his thoughts. Suspicion, fear, wild anger wove
dances in his brain--witch-dances immingled with cursings upon the
heads of Pamphlett and Policeman Rat-it-all. . . . Of a sudden he sat
up and stiffened with a new fright.

"By the manner of her conversation, that woman was makin' love to
me!"

Left to herself, and as Nicky-Nan passed out of sight around the
corner beyond the bridge, Miss Charity Oliver warily opened her palm
and examined the guinea.

"By rights," she mused, "I ought to take this in to Mrs Penhaligon at
once, and caution her about Alcibiades. . . . No, I won't, though.
I'll call first and have it out with Mary-Martha. She thinks she
knows everything, and she has a way of making others believe it.
But she has proved herself a broken reed over this affair: and,"
said Miss Oliver to herself with decision, "I rather fancy I'll make
Mary-Martha sensible of it."

CHAPTER XXI.

FAIRY GOLD.

"So you see, Mary-Martha, that for once in a way you were wrong and I
was right."

"You're too fond of sweepin' statements, Charity Oliver. I doubt
your first, and your second I not only doubt but deny. So far as I
remember, I said the man was probably in German pay, while you
insisted that he'd won the money in a lottery."

"I didn't insist: I merely suggested. It was you who started to talk
about German money: and I answered you that, even if the money _was_
German, there might be an innocent way of explaining it before you
took upon yourself to warn the police."

Mrs Polsue glanced at her friend sharply. "You seem to be gettin'
very hot over it," was her comment. "Why, I can't think.
You certainly wouldn't if you gave any thought to your appearance."

"I'm not hot in the least," hotly protested Miss Oliver. "I'm simply
proving to you that you've made a mistake: which you could never in
your