"You surely don't intend to visit Mrs. Reierson?"
"I don't intend to tell you," was the reply; "but even if I do, what harm is there in that?"
"No, of course there's no harm; but according to Monk's description, there was nothing very prepossessing about Mrs. Reierson six years ago, and in the course of these years she is not likely to have changed for the better."
"Don't let us talk about it any more. Remember I have been to less prepossessing houses before in my life, on mysterious errands. Do you remember that time when I paid my fruitless visit to the pawnbroker, and, in my despair, had to go to Monk?"
"Yes, you were lucky that time," I answered gayly. "If you hadn't gone that day to Monk, you would never have met me, and then perhaps you would never have been married."
"Of course I do not want to keep any secrets from you, either big or small," said Clara. "It is my intention to go to Mrs. Reierson to-morrow morning. But you shall not go with me; first, because I consider it will serve my purpose better if I go alone. Men are such blunderers, you know. She is naturally suspicious about men, and would perhaps recognize you as a friend of Monk's, and secondly, I am very anxious to carry out my little plan all by myself. Fancy, if I can help him, as he once helped me,—wouldn't that be a triumph!"
CHAPTER V
THE MOST IMPORTANT CHAPTER IN THE BOOK.
CLARA ACTS THE DETECTIVE
"It's time to get up, sir. Missus said as 'ow I must get you up by half-past nine."
I looked up in astonishment. In the doorway stood our red-faced country servant girl nodding good-humouredly at me.