"I don't understand you," he replied. I knew that as clearly as I saw he was now interested enough to wish me to do so. I let my fingers dawdle among the chessmen during a pause intended to whet his curiosity, and then replied:
"I wish you to ask her to bring you a sealed envelope which I gave her six days ago, the day after the jewels disappeared."
"It is very unusual," he murmured, wrinkling his brows and pursing his lips.
"I am perhaps, not quite a usual person," I admitted, with a shrug.
He sat thinking, and presently I saw he would humour me. His brows straightened out, and his pursed lips relaxed into the indulgent smile once more.
"You are a charming woman, Miss Gilmore, if a little unusual, as you say;" and he rang the bell.
"You have not moved, I think," I reminded him; but he sat back, not looking at the board and not speaking until his daughter came. I understood this to signify that I was on my trial.
"Miss Gilmore gave you a sealed envelope some days ago, Charlotte," he said to her. "She wishes you to bring it to me. Has it really any connexion with this case?" he asked, as soon as she had left to fetch it.
I laughed.
"How could it, your Excellency? What could a girl in my position, here only a few weeks, possibly know about such a thing?"