“Nan, Lenore Remsen will have a dowry of more than a million. This house, with the estate upon which it stands, will go to her. He regards that as a prize worth winning, no matter what the effort. He stole the jewels merely to provide himself with ready cash when the time comes for him to leave here to prepare for the wedding. The wedding itself is the great goal.”
“I am aware of that.”
“Therefore, when he decided that you had gone to New York to warn me, and possibly to bring me back with you, he realized that he must make his position unassailably strong, or else abandon it altogether.”
“But, how——”
“Now, if the worst should come to the worst, he could tell what you used to be—and he knows that you could not and would not deny that. He also knows that you and I, both, will do anything in our power to prevent the necessity of such a revelation.”
“Yes,” she said.
“So it remains—at least it is apparent to me—that he has found a place inside of your rooms to conceal those stolen jewels; a place where he could find them by accident, or where some other person would find them seemingly by accident, in case a search should be made for them. Where would you be then, Nan?”
She smiled wistfully; and then, with an attempt at playfulness, replied:
“I’d be in a bad fix, wouldn’t I?”