"Good for you!" said Max cordially. His gray eyes were very kind and friendly as he rose to leave.
"I hope you'll feel more fit to-morrow," he said, shaking hands. "If I possibly can, I'll run in and make a report; if not, I'll drop a line when I get home to the lurid lights of Paris."
"Shall you drive back with the Embassy insignia on your car?" inquired Win smiling. He looked much brighter and happier than before his visitor came.
Max laughed. "I fancy not," he said as he gathered hat, gloves and riding-crop. "I'm rather anxious to be on my good behavior. No, I'll let Jean drive which will be prudently slow, and I'll meditate about your hidden chest and the dotted path and other things back at the Manor."
"I believe Mr. Hamilton did you more good than the doctor," declared Mrs. Thayne, entering Win's room after his caller had mounted Saracen and ridden away. "You look fifty per cent brighter."
"He's a crackerjack," said Win briefly. "He's promised to do some investigating on his own account and I feel sure that he can induce Colonel Lisle to let us try an experiment if it is needed. But, Mother, there's something I've been meaning to tell you all day, not about the Spanish chest or anything to do with it. You know we spoke once of how Miss Estelle reminded us of some one at home. This morning instead of sending a servant with my breakfast, she brought it herself, and when she was arranging things, I remembered whom it is she looks like. It is your friend, Mrs. Aldrich."
"Win, you're right," said Mrs. Thayne suddenly. "Estelle is like Carrie Aldrich, and not in looks alone, but in manner. Now how can that possibly be? Of course it is only a chance resemblance but it must exist since you notice it, too. I wonder whether Fran ever carried out her intention of asking Edith whether they had any relatives in the United States. She spoke of doing so."
"What good would that do, if Mrs. Aldrich is the person Estelle resembles?" asked Win. "Haven't you known her all her life?"
"I met her at school," replied his mother, "when we both were young girls and then knew her intimately. Of later years, we have seen less of each other, though we have always kept up the friendship. There seems no possible connection between Carrie Aldrich and Estelle and the likeness must be only in our minds. They say, you know, that every person in the world has a double somewhere."
"I'd like mighty well to be Mr. Max's double if I could only choose," muttered Win to himself.