"I haven't much to do, anyway," answered his wife.
"What have you been hiding from me for the past few weeks, Miriam?" presently asked Challoner.
She looked quickly up at him and repeated:—
"Hiding——"
He pointed toward the closet.
"What have you been putting away there every night for the last few weeks? What is in that closet now?"
Miriam Challoner hesitated. When she found her voice, she asked tremblingly:—
"Do you really want to know?"
"Yes," he answered in the same tone.
Miriam stepped to the closet, fumbled there among some things, and returning thrust something into his hands.