He felt that through this wild questioning they had at least reached a certain testimony supporting Captain Palliser"s views; and his interest reluctantly increased. It was reluctant because there could be no shadow of a question that this innocent spinster lady told the absolute truth; and, this being the case, one seemed to be dragged to the verge of depths which must inevitably be explored. Miss Alicia"s expression was that of one who conscientiously searched memory.

"I do not remember that he really expressed doubt," she answered, carefully. "Not exactly that, but--"

"But what?" prompted Palford as she hesitated. "Please try to recall exactly what he said. It is most important."

The fact that his manner was almost eager, and that eagerness was not his habit, made her catch her breath and look more questioning and puzzled than before.

"One day he came to my sitting-room when he seemed rather excited,"

she explained. "He had been with Mr. Strangeways, who had been worse than usual. Perhaps he wanted to distract himself and forget about it.

He asked me questions and talked about poor Jem for about an hour. And at last he said, `Do you suppose there"s any sort of chance that it mightn"t be true--that story that came from the Klondike?" He said it so thoughtfully that I was startled and said, `Do you think there could be such a chance--do you?" And he drew a long breath and answered, `You want to be sure about things like that; you"ve got to be sure." I was a little excited, so he changed the subject very soon afterward, and I never felt quite certain of what he was really thinking. You see what he said was not so much an expression of doubt as a sort of question."

A touch of the lofty condemnatory made Mr. Palford impressive.

"I am compelled to admit that I fear that it was a question of which he had already guessed the answer," he said.

At this point Miss Alicia clasped her hands quite tightly together upon her knees.

"If you please," she exclaimed, "I must ask you to make things a little clear to me. What dreadful thing has happened? I will regard any communication as a most sacred confidence."

"I think we may as well, Palford?" Mr. Grimby suggested to his partner.

"Yes," Palford acquiesced. He felt the difficulty of a blank explanation. "We are involved in a most trying position," he said. "We feel that great discretion must be used until we have reached more definite certainty. An extraordinary--in fact, a startling thing has occurred. We are beginning, as a result of c.u.mulative evidence, to feel that there was reason to believe that the Klondike story was to be doubted--"

"That poor Jem--!" cried Miss Alicia.

"One begins to be gravely uncertain as to whether he has not been in this house for months, whether he was not the mysterious Mr.

Strangeways!"

"Jem! Jem!" gasped poor little Miss Temple Barholm, quite white with shock.

"And if he was the mysterious Strangeways," Mr. Grimby a.s.sisted to shorten the matter, "the American Temple Barholm apparently knew the fact, brought him here for that reason, and for the same reason kept him secreted and under restraint."

"No! No!" cried Miss Alicia. "Never! Never! I beg you not to say such a thing. Excuse me--I cannot listen! It would be wrong--ungrateful.

Excuse me!" She got up from her seat, trembling with actual anger in her sense of outrage. It was a remarkable thing to see the small, elderly creature angry, but this remarkable thing had happened. It was as though she were a mother defending her young.

"I loved poor Jem and I love Temple, and, though I am only a woman who never has been the least clever, I know them both. I know neither of them could lie or do a wicked, cunning thing. Temple is the soul of honor."

It was quite an inspirational outburst. She had never before in her life said so much at one time. Of course tears began to stream down her face, while Mr. Palford and Mr. Grimby gazed at her in great embarra.s.sment.

"If Mr. Strangeways was poor Jem come back alive, Temple did not know- -he never knew. All he did for him was done for kindness" sake. I--I-- " It was inevitable that she should stammer before going to this length of violence, and that the words should burst from her: "I would swear it!"

It was really a shock to both Palford and Grimby. That a lady of Miss Temple Barholm"s age and training should volunteer to swear to a thing was almost alarming. It was also in rather unpleasing taste.

"Captain Palliser obliged Mr. Temple Temple Barholm to confess that he had known for some time," Mr. Palford said with cold regret. "He also informed him that he should communicate with us without delay."

"Captain Palliser is a bad man." Miss Alicia choked back a gasp to make the protest.

"It was after their interview that Mr. Temple Barholm almost immediately left the house."

"Without any explanation whatever," added Grimby.

"He left a few lines for me," defended Miss Alicia.

"We have not seen them." Mr. Palford was still as well as cold. Poor little Miss Alicia took them out of her pocket with an unsteady hand.

They were always with her, and she could not on such a challenge seem afraid to allow them to be read. Mr. Palford took them from her with a slight bow of thanks. He adjusted his gla.s.ses and read aloud, with pauses between phrases which seemed somewhat to puzzle him.

"Dear little Miss Alicia:

"I"ve got to light out of here as quick as I can make it. I can"t even stop to tell you why. There"s just one thing--don"t get rattled, Miss Alicia. Whatever any one says or does, don"t get rattled.

"Yours affectionately,

"T. TEMBAROM."

There was a silence, Mr. Palford pa.s.sed the paper to his partner, who gave it careful study. Afterward he refolded it and handed it back to Miss Alicia.

"In a court of law," was Mr. Palford"s sole remark, "it would not be regarded as evidence for the defendant."

Miss Alicia"s tears were still streaming, but she held her ringleted head well up.

"I cannot stay! I beg your pardon, I do indeed!" she said. "But I must leave you. You see," she added, with her fine little touch of dignity, "as yet this house is still Mr. Temple Barholm"s home, and I am the grateful recipient of his bounty. Burrill will attend you and make you quite comfortable." With an obeisance which was like a slight curtsey, she turned and fled.

In less than an hour she walked up the neat bricked path, and old Mrs.

Hutchinson, looking out, saw her through the tiers of flower-pots in the window. Hutchinson himself was in London, but Ann was reading at the other side of the room.

"Here"s poor little owd Miss Temple Barholm aw in a flutter," remarked her grandmother. "Tha"s got some work cut out for thee if tha"s going to quiet her. Oppen th" door, la.s.s."

Ann opened the door, and stood by it with calm though welcoming dimples.

"Miss Hutchinson "--Miss Alicia began all at once to realize that they did not know each other, and that she had flown to the refuge of her youth without being at all aware of what she was about to say. "Oh!

Little Ann!" she broke down with frank tears. "My poor boy! My poor boy!"

Little Ann drew her inside and closed the door.

"There, Miss Temple Barholm," she said. "There now Just come in and sit down. I"ll get you a good cup of tea. You need one."

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII

The Duke of Stone had been sufficiently occupied with one of his slighter attacks of rheumatic gout to have been, so to speak, out of the running in the past weeks. His indisposition had not condemned him to the usual dullness, however. He had suffered less pain than was customary, and Mrs. Braddle had been more than usually interesting in conversation on those occasions when, in making him very comfortable in one way or another, she felt that a measure of entertainment would add to his well-being. His epicurean habit of mind tended toward causing him to find a subtle pleasure in the hearing of various versions of any story whatever. His intimacy with T. Tembarom had furnished forth many an agreeable mental repast for him. He had had T.

Tembarom"s version of himself, the version of the county, the version of the uneducated cla.s.s, and his own version. All of these had had varying shades of their own. He had found a cynically fine flavor in Palliser"s version, which he had gathered through talk and processes of exclusion and inclusion.