ack-eyed young man stopped suddenly at sight
of the newcomers. He had evidently expected to find the hall untenanted.
Taking up his stand before the door, he barred the way with his tall,
liveried figure, and it struck Constance that he looked aggressive, as
if, had he dared, he would have shut the door again, almost in her face.

"I beg your pardon, madame!" he said in so loud a voice that it was like
a warning to his master that an intruder might be expected. It occurred
to her also, for the first time, that his accent sounded rather American,
and he had forgotten to address her as "my lady."

This was odd, for his brother was the most typical British butler
imaginable, as Nelson had remarked soon after the two servants had been
engaged.

She stared, surprised; but Char still kept the door until his master
showed himself in the lighted aperture. Then the chauffeur, saluting
courteously, stepped aside.

"Funny that he should be here!" thought Constance. She might have been
malicious enough to imagine that Nelson Smith had drunk too heavily at
his club, and had been helped into the house by Char, who wished to
protect him until the last; but he was unmistakably his usual self: cool,
and more than ordinarily alert.

"Oh, how do you do?" he exclaimed. "I heard Char say 'Madame,' and
thought it was Anita at the door."

"No, she has gone upstairs," explained Lady Annesley-Seton. "So has Dick.
I alone had courage to linger! I feel like Fatima with the blood-stained
key, in Bluebeard's house, you are such a bear about this den--you really
_are_, you know!"

"I didn't expect you three so soon," said Knight, calmly. "If I'd known
you had a curiosity to see Bluebeard's Chamber, I'd have had it smartened
up. As it is, I shouldn't dare let you peep. You, the mistress of the
house before we took it over, would be critical of the state I delight
to keep it in. Untidiness is my _one_ fault!"

"I'll put off the visit till a more propitious hour," Constance reassured
him, "if you'll spare me a moment in the hall. It's only a word--about
Madalena. She has asked me to call her that."

"The Countess de Santiago?" Knight questioned, smiling. He closed the
door of the den, and came out into the hall, turning on still another of
the lights.

"Yes. I've been to see her to-day. Will you believe it, she saw the
_whole_ affair of last night in her crystal--and the thief, and
everything!"

"Oh, indeed, did she? How intelligent."