lbum and suddenly I saw my father's photograph! Mother had a
miniature of him--I have it still, and I was certain it was the same
man. I pulled myself together and asked Sir Reginald in a very ordinary
voice who that was, and I could see that both he and Lady Cromarty
jumped a little. He had to tell me it was his brother Alfred and I
discovered he had long been dead, but I didn't try to get any more
information from them. I applied to Bisset."

She gave a little laugh and looked at him with a touch of defiance. His
inscrutable countenance appeared to annoy her.

"Well?" he remarked.

"Perhaps you think I oughtn't to have gone to a butler about such a
thing, but Bisset is practically one of the family and I didn't give him
the least idea of what I was after. I simply drew him on the subject of
the Cromarty family history and among other things--that didn't so much
interest me--I found that Mr. Alfred Cromarty was never married and
seemed to have had rather a gay reputation."

She looked at him with an expression that would have immediately
converted any susceptible man into a fellow conspirator, and asked in
her most enticing voice:

"Need you ask what I guessed? What is the use in not telling me simply
whether I have guessed right!"

Silent Simon's face remained a mask.

"What precisely did you guess?"

"That my mother wasn't married," she said, her voice falling very low,
"and I am really Sir Reginald's niece though he never can acknowledge
it--and I don't want him to! But I do want to be sure. Dear Mr. Rattar,
won't you tell me?"

Dear Mr. Rattar never relaxed a muscle.

"Your guess seems very probable," he admitted.

"But tell me definitely."

"Why?" he enquired coldly.

"Oh, have you no _curiosity_ yourself--especially about who your parents
were; supposing you didn't know?"

"Then it's only out of curiosity that you enquired?"

"Only!" she repeated with a world of woman's scorn. "But what sort of
motives did you expect? I have walked in the whole way this morning just
to end the suspense of wondering! Of course, I'll never tell a soul you
told me."

She threw on him a moving smile.

"You needn't actually tell me outright. Just use some legal
word--'Alibi' if I am right and 'forgery' if I'm wrong!"

Silent Simon's sudden glance chilled her smile. She evidently felt she
had been taking the law in vain.

"I only meant----" she began anxiously.

"I must consult Sir Reginald," he interrupted b