Darrow’s sunken face was suffused by his rare smile. “Oh, well, he’ll pull it off then!” he said.

Mrs. Peyton rose with a distracted sigh. “I half hope he won’t, for such a motive,” she exclaimed.

“The motive won’t show in his work,” said Darrow. He added, after a pause probably devoted to the search for the right word: “He seems to think a great deal of her.”

Mrs. Peyton fixed him thoughtfully. “I wish I knew what you think of her.”

“Why, I never saw her before.”

“No; but you talked with her to-day. You’ve formed an opinion: I think you came here on purpose.”

He chuckled joyously at her discernment: she had always seemed to him gifted with supernatural insight. “Well, I did want to see her,” he owned.

“And what do you think?”

He took a few vague steps and then halted before Mrs. Peyton. “I think,” he said, smiling, “that she likes to be helped first, and to have everything on her plate at once.”

III