ty sprang up and down in excitement. "I had a plan. It might have
worked without this. It was the only way then. But this makes it
sure--yes, most beautifully sure. It shows that the thing to do is
to follow your convictions. You say you actually have the money, Mrs.
Crozier?"

Mona took from her pocket an envelope, and out of it she drew four Bank
of England notes. "Here it is--here are four one-thousand-pound notes.
I had it paid to me that way five years ago, and here--here it is," she
added, with almost a touch of hysteria in her voice, for the excitement
of it all acted on her like an electric storm.

"Well, we'll get to work at once," declared Kitty, looking at the notes
admiringly, then taking them from Mona and smoothing them out with
tender firmness. "It's just the luck of the wide world, as my father
used to say. It actually is. Now you see," she continued, "it's like
this. That letter you wrote him"--she addressed herself to Mona--"it
has to be changed. You have got to rewrite it, and you must put into it
these four bank-notes. Then when you see him again you must have that
letter opened at exactly the right moment, and--oh, I wonder if you will
do it exactly right!" she added dubiously to Mona. "You don't play your
game very well, and it's just possible that, even now, with all the
cards in your hands, you will throw them away as you did in the past. I
wish that--"

Seeing Mona's agitation changing to choler, the Young Doctor intervened.
He did not know Kitty was purposely stinging Crozier's unhappy little
consort, so that she should be put upon her mettle to do the thing
without bungling.

"You can trust Mrs. Crozier to act carefully; but what exactly do you
mean? I judge that Mrs. Crozier does not see more distinctly than I
do," he remarked inquiringly to Kitty, and with admonishment in tone and
emphasis.

"No, I do not understand quite--will you explain?" interposed Mona with
inner resentment at being managed, but feeling that she could not do
without Kitty even if she would.

"As I said," continued Kitty, "I will open that letter, and you will put
in another letter and these bank-notes; and when he repeats what he said
about the way you felt and wrote when he broke his pledge, you can blaze
up and tell him to open the letter. Then he will be so sorry that he'll
get down on his knees, and you will be happy ever after."

"But it will be a fraud, and dishonest and dishonourable," protested
Mona.