"A motor-car and a woman have several points in common."-From the roadside reflections of Harry Glenn. CHAPTER I A SIGNIFICANT INTERLUDE AFTER the Captain had spent some little time at the telephone, arranging for the services of a first-class detective, he and I repaired for luncheon to one of the quieter restaurants on a side street. I knew that if we went to any of the places where the world congregates, it would be our fate to encounter everyone we had ever met, and that we should be simply overwhelmed with questions about the robbery, the one thing I particularly desired to avoid. So we sought a remote little retreat, nearly empty, but charmingly clean and peaceful, and where we might feel reasonably secure from the interruption of curious friends. It struck me as we took our places that Duncan looked a trifle too preoccupied and worried for a man in the first stages of his betrothal; so I consequently resolved to divert his mind from this annoying business, which was so largely absorbing his thoughts. "I will allow you a wide range of topics with which to entertain me," I said decidedly as I unfolded my serviette, "everything in the heavens above, or the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth; but one subject must be strictly tabooed between us, and that is the robbery." "By all means," he agreed heartily. "I shall be glad when we need never mention the hateful affair again."-His glance fell on my hands resting on the edge of the tablecloth. "Gwen," he broke out irrelevantly, "do you mean to tell me that you put in day after day painting fans for a lot of idle, stupid people?" "Commend them that they are idle and stupid," I laughed; or "perhaps they wouldn't buy my fans." He frowned momentarily; then, heedless of the waiter hovering near, he reached across the table and caught my bread-winning member in a tenderly protecting clasp. "But those pretty fingers shall soon be so stiff with rings that they will not be able to hold the brushes," he announced triumphantly. "Not rubies or sapphires, though,” I warned him; "an' you love me, not them. I never want to gaze on either of those stones again." Thus we laughed and jested; but presently a shade of gravity stole over his face. "Gwen," he said hesitatingly, "do you not think that you and Miss Yeats owe Mr. and Mrs. Van Suyden some sort of an explanation of your part ofof-?" "The robbery?" I finished for him. "You are not playing fair. You are disregarding the taboo." "Nevertheless," he insisted, "I think you ought to see them; and that, too, without delay." I scowled at the flowers on the table, and a mutinous pout creased up the corners of my mouth. It was an idea which had already more than once, presented itself to me; but I had resolutely refused to entertain it. "I know you are right,” I admitted at last, unwillingly enough; "but you cannot dream how I hate it, shrink from it. It will be a terrible ordeal. They are both so-so difficult, you know." "Nevertheless," he urged, "it has to be undergone some time. Why not now, and have it over |