trifle more to the beauty of Agatha's jewels, until the silence at the
small table in the corner remained unbroken except by the faint tinkle
of silver and crystal and the bubbling hiss of a glass refilled.

Major Belwether, his white, fluffy, chop-whiskers brushed rabbit
fashion, peeped in at the door, started to tiptoe out again, caught
sight of them, and came trotting back, beaming rosy effusion. He leaned
roguishly over the table, his moist eyes a-twinkle with suppressed
mirth; then, bestowing a sprightly glance on Plank, which said very
plainly, "I'm up to one of my irrepressible jokes again!" he held up a
smooth, white, and over-manicured forefinger:

"I was in Tiffany's yesterday," he said, "and I saw a young man in there
who didn't see me, and I peeped over his shoulder, and what do you think
he was doing?"

She lifted her eyes a little wearily:

"I don't know," she said.

"I do," he chuckled. "He was choosing a collar of blue diamonds and aqua
marines!--Te-he!--probably to wear himself!--Te-he! Or perhaps he
was going to be married!--He-he-he!--next winter--ahem!--next
November--Ha-ha! I don't know, I'm sure, what he meant to do with that
collar. I only--"

Something in Sylvia's eyes stopped him, and, following their direction,
he turned around to find Quarrier standing at his elbow, icy and
expressionless.

"Oh," said the aged jester, a little disconcerted, "I'm caught talking
out in church, I see! It was only a harmless little fun, Howard."

"Do you mean you saw me?" asked Quarrier, pale as a sheet. "You are in
error. I have not been in Tiffany's in months."

Belwether, crestfallen under the white menace of Quarrier's face,
nodded, and essayed a chuckle without success.

Sylvia, at first listless and uninterested, looked inquiringly from the
major to Quarrier, surprised at the suppressed feeling exhibited over so
trivial a gaucherie. If Quarrier had chosen a collar like Agatha's for
her, what of it? But as he had not, on his own statement, what did
it matter? Why should he look that way at the foolish major, to whose
garrulous gossip he was accustomed, and whose inability to refrain from
prying was notorious enough.

Turning disdainfully, she caught a glimpse of Plank's shocked and
altered face. It relapsed instantly into the usual inert expression; and
a queer, uncomfortable perplexity began to invade her. What had happened
to stir up these three men? Of what importance was an indiscretion of