is a plain explanation."

His tone puzzled her. "Have I said anything to offend you?" she asked.
"Surely you can make allowance for a girl's curiosity? Oh, you shall
have your explanation--and, what is more, you shall have it without
reserve!"

She was as good as her word. What she had thought, and what she had
planned, when he left her after his last visit, was frankly and fully
told. "If you wonder how I discovered the library," she went on, "I must
refer you to my aunt's lawyer. He lives in the City--and I wrote to him
to help me. I don't consider that my time has been wasted. Mr. M orris,
we owe an apology to Mrs. Rook."

Alban's astonishment, when he heard this, forced its way to expression
in words. "What can you possibly mean?" he asked.

The tea was brought in before Emily could reply. She filled the cups,
and sighed as she looked at the cake. "If Cecilia was here, how she
would enjoy it!" With that complimentary tribute to her friend, she
handed a slice to Alban. He never even noticed it.

"We have both of us behaved most unkindly to Mrs. Rook," she resumed. "I
can excuse your not seeing it; for I should not have seen it either, but
for the newspaper. While I was reading, I had an opportunity of thinking
over what we said and did, when the poor woman's behavior so needlessly
offended us. I was too excited to think, at the time--and, besides, I
had been upset, only the night before, by what Miss Jethro said to me."

Alban started. "What has Miss Jethro to do with it?" he asked.

"Nothing at all," Emily answered. "She spoke to me of her own private
affairs. A long story--and you wouldn't be interested in it. Let me
finish what I had to say. Mrs. Rook was naturally reminded of the
murder, when she heard that my name was Brown; and she must certainly
have been struck--as I was--by the coincidence of my father's death
taking place at the same time when his unfortunate namesake was killed.
Doesn't this sufficiently account for her agitation when she looked at
the locket? We first took her by surprise: and then we suspected her of
Heaven knows what, because the poor creature didn't happen to have her
wits about her, and to remember at the right moment what a very common
name 'James Brown' is. Don't you see it as I do?"

"I see that you have arrived at a remarkable change of opinion, since we
spoke of the subject in the garden at school."

"In my place, you would have changed your opinion too. I shall write to