this retreat, he
settled down to read.

For it was a favourite relaxation of the right honourable gentleman's to
bury himself amid exotic blooms, and in such congenial company as that
of the Patrician aesthete, rekindle the torches of voluptuous Rome.

A few minutes later:

"Am I nowhere immune from interruption?" muttered Mr. Belford, with the
nearest approach to irritability of which his equable temper was deemed
capable.

But the next moment his genial smile dawned, as the charming face of his
niece, Lady Mary Evershed, peeped through the foliage.

"Truman was afraid to interrupt you, uncle, as you were in your cell!
But Inspector Sheffield is asking for you, and seems very excited."

"Dear me!" said her uncle, glancing at his watch; "but I saw him fifteen
minutes ago! It has just gone nine." Then, recalling Severac Bablon's
boastful message: "He has not dared to attempt it! Unless--can it be
that he is arrested? Tell Truman to send the inspector here, Mary."

The girl, with a little puzzled frown on her forehead, withdrew, and
almost immediately a heavy step sounded in the library, and
Chief-Inspector Sheffield, pushing past the footman, burst
unceremoniously into the conservatory. His face was flushed, and his
eyes were angrily bright.

"We've been hoaxed, sir!" he cried. "We've been hoaxed!"

Mr. Belford raised a white hand.

"My dear inspector," he said, "be calm, I beg of you! Will you not take
a seat and explain this matter to me?"

Sheffield dropped into a chair, but the flow of excited words would not
be stayed nor dammed.

"He's tricked us again!" he burst out. "I suspect what he wanted, sir,
and I rely on you to give me all the help you can! I know Paul Harley
has got hold of evidence that we couldn't get; but a C.I.D. man can't
spend a week making love to Lady Mary Evershed's maid----"

"But others are better able to devote that amount of time to my maid, I
suppose?"

The interruption startled Mr. Belford out of his habitual calm, and
startled the detective into sudden silence.

Lady Mary stood at the door of the conservatory.

"I am sorry to appear as an eavesdropper," she continued; "but, as a
matter of fact, I had never left the study!"

"Er--Mary," began the Home Secretary, but for once in a way he was at a
loss for words. He knew from experience that the most obstreperous
friend "opposite" was easier to deal with than a pretty niece.

"Zoe is here with me, too," said Mary, and t