She handed it to him, and he read it.

"From Brandan, the perfumers. They wouldn't be in it, but we had better
make sure."

He walked to the telephone and gave a number, and the girl heard him
speaking in a low tone to somebody at the other end. Presently he put
down the receiver and walked back, his hands thrust into his pockets.

"They know nothing about this act of generosity," he said.

By this time she had removed her coat and hat and hung them up, and had
taken her place at her desk. She sat with her elbows on the
blotting-pad, her chin on her clasped hands, looking up at him.

"I don't think it's fair that things should be kept from me any longer,"
she said. "Many mysterious things have happened in the past few days,
and since they have all directly affected me, I think I am entitled to
some sort of explanation."

"I think you are," said Mr. Beale, with a twinkle in his grey eyes, "but
I am not prepared to explain everything just yet. Thus much I will tell
you, that had you used this soap this morning, by the evening you would
have been covered from head to foot in a rather alarming and irritating
rash."

She gasped.

"But who dared to send me this?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Who knows? But first let me ask you this. Miss Cresswell. Suppose
to-night when you had looked at yourself in the glass you had discovered
your face was covered with red blotches and, on further examination, you
found your arms and, indeed, the whole of your body similarly
disfigured, what would you have done?"

She thought for a moment.

"Why, of course, I should have sent for the doctor."

"Which doctor?" he asked carelessly.

"Doctor van Heerden--oh!" She looked at him resentfully. "You don't
suggest that Doctor van Heerden sent that hideous thing to me?"

"I don't suggest anything," said Mr. Beale coolly.

"I merely say that you would have sent for a doctor, and that that
doctor would have been Doctor van Heerden. I say further, that he would
have come to you and been very sympathetic, and would have ordered you
to remain in bed for four or five days. I think, too," he said, looking
up at the ceiling and speaking slowly, as though he were working out the
possible consequence in his mind, "that he would have given you some
very palatable medicine."

"What are you insinuating?" she asked quietly.

He did not reply immediately.

"If you will get out of your mind the idea that I have any particular
grievance agai