"I didn't say that"; and Thresk himself appeared in the doorway and went
across to the writing-table upon which Hazlewood had just laid a drawer
in which miniatures were ranged.

"I haven't met you," said Pettifer, "since you led for us in the great
Birmingham will-suit."

"No," answered Thresk as he took his seat at the table. "It wasn't quite
such a tough fight as I expected. You see there wasn't one really
reliable witness for the defence."

"No," said Pettifer grimly. "If there had been we should have been
beaten."

Mr. Hazlewood began to point out this and that miniature of his
collection, bending over Thresk as he did so. It seemed that the two
collectors were quite lost in their common hobby until Robert Pettifer
gave the signal.

Then Mr. Hazlewood began:

"I am very glad to meet you, Mr. Thresk, for reasons quite outside these
miniatures of mine."

He spoke with a noticeable awkwardness, yet Henry Thresk disregarded it
altogether.

"Oh?" he said carelessly.

"Yes. Being Richard's father I am naturally concerned in everything
which affects him nearly--the trial of Stella Ballantyne for instance."

Thresk bent his head down over the tray.

"Quite so," he said. He pointed to a miniature. "I saw that at Christie's
and coveted it myself."

"Did you?" Mr. Hazlewood asked and he almost offered it as a bribe. "Now
you gave evidence, Mr. Thresk."

Thresk never lifted his head.

"You have no doubt read the evidence I gave," he said, peering from this
delicate jewel of the painter's art to that.

"To be sure."

"And since your son is engaged to Mrs. Ballantyne, I suppose that you
were satisfied with it"--and he paused to give a trifle of significance
to his next words--"as the jury was."

"Yes, of course," Mr. Hazlewood stammered, "but a witness, I think, only
answers the questions put to him."

"That is so," said Thresk, "if he is a wise witness." He took one of the
miniatures out of the drawer and held it to the light. But Mr. Hazlewood
was not to be deterred.

"And subsequent reflection," he continued obstinately, "might suggest
that all the questions which could throw light upon the trial had not
been put."

Thresk replaced the miniature in the drawer in front of him and leaned
back in his chair. He looked now straight at Mr. Hazlewood.

"It was not, I take it, in order to put those questions to me that you
were kind enough, Mr. Hazlewood, to ask me to give my opinion on your
miniatures.