one of the most sustaining gifts a man can possess is the ability to look upon the bright side of disaster. it was a gift which, until now, sigsbee h. waddington had lacked almost entirely: but at this moment, owing perhaps to the fact that he had just introduced into his interior a healing drink of quite exceptional strength, he suddenly found himself discerning with a limpid clearness the fact that the elimination of that near-pearl necklace from the scheme of things was, from his point of view, the very best thing that could have happened.

it had not been his intention to allow his young assistant to secure the necklace and convert it to her own uses: but, now that this had happened, what, he asked himself, had he to worry about? the main thing was that the necklace had disappeared. coming right down to it, that was the consummation at which he had aimed all along.

what it amounted to was that, when all the tumult and the shouting had died, he was three hundred dollars in hand and consequently in a position, if he ever met that policeman again and the policeman had not happened to hear the news which united beef had told him, to....

at this point in his meditations mr. waddington suddenly broke off and uttered a sharp exclamation. for before his eyes in letters of fire there seemed to be written the one word

gallagher

sigsbee h. waddington reeled in his tracks. gallagher! that was the name. not mulcahy. not garrity. not murphy. gallagher!

like many another good man before him, sigsbee waddington chafed at the fat-headed imbecility with which memory can behave. why should memory have presented to his notice futile mulcahys and garritys and murphys when what he had been asking for was gallagher? wasting his time!

but it was not too late. if he went straight back to new york now and resumed his quest, all might yet be well. and fortune had, he perceived, presented him with the most admirable excuse for going straight back to new york. in a crisis like this, with a valuable pearl necklace stolen it was imperative that a cool-headed, clear-thinking man of the world should take the next train up and place the facts in the possession of police headquarters.

"good enough!" said mr. waddington to his immortal soul; and hobbled stiffly but light-heartedly to the boudoir.

voices reached his ears as he opened the door. they ceased as he entered, and mrs. waddington looked up peevishly.

"where have you been, i should like to know?" she said.

sigsbee h. was ready for this one.

"i took a long country walk. a very long country walk. i was so shocked, horrified and surprised by that dreadful scene that the house seemed to stifle me. so i took a long country walk. i have just got back. what a very disturbing thing to happen! ferris says it could never have occurred at brangmarley hall."

molly, somewhat red about the eyes and distinctly mutinous about the mouth, spoke for the first time.

"i'm sure there is some explanation."

"tchah!" said mrs. waddington.

"i know there is."

"then why did not your precious finch condescend to give it?"

"he was so taken aback."

"i don't wonder."

"i'm sure there was some mistake."

"there was," said mr. waddington. he patted his daughter's hand soothingly. "the whole thing was a put-up job."

"kindly talk sense, sigsbee."

"i am talking sense."

"what you call sense, perhaps, but not what anyone outside the walls of an institution for the feeble-minded would call sense."

"is zat so?" mr. waddington put his thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat and felt rather conquering. "well, let me tell you that that girl simply pretended to be what she wasn't so as to fool you into thinking she wasn't what she was."

mrs. waddington sighed despairingly.

"go away, sigsbee," she said.

"that's all right about go away, sigsbee. i'm telling you that that girl was a crook. she couldn't get in any other way, so she pulled that discarded stuff. she was after the wedding-presents."

"then why did she not take them?"

"she did. she took molly's pearl necklace."

"what!"

"you heard. she took molly's pearl necklace."

"nonsense."

"well, it's gone."

molly had risen with shining eyes.

"i thought as much. so my dear darling george is innocent after all."

very few people in this civilised world have ever seen a baffled tigress, but anybody who could have watched mrs. waddington's face at this moment would have gained a very fair knowledge of how baffled tigresses look.

"i don't believe it," she said sullenly.

"well, the necklace has gone, hasn't it," said sigsbee h. "and you don't suppose any of the guests took it, do you? though i wouldn't put it past that lord hunstanton guy. of course that girl has got it. she fainted on the wedding-present table, didn't she? she said she wanted air and rushed out, didn't she? and nobody's seen her since, have they? if it hadn't been for going for my long country walk, i'd have got on to this hours ago.

"i'm going straight to new york to see george and tell him," said molly, breathing quickly.

"you will do nothing of the kind," said mrs. waddington, rising.

"and i'm going to new york to see the police," said sigsbee.

"you are certainly not! i will go to new york, and i will inform the police. you and molly will stay here."

"but listen...."

"i want no further discussion." mrs. waddington pressed the bell. "as for you," she said, turning to molly, "do you suppose i am going to allow you to pay nocturnal visits to the apartments of libertines like george finch?"

"he is not a libertine."

"certainly not," said sigsbee h. "a very fine young fellow. comes from idaho."

"you know perfectly well," molly went on, "that what father has told us absolutely clears george. why, the girl might just as well have come in and said that father had deserted her."

"here!" said mr. waddington. "hi!"

"she only wanted an excuse for getting into the house."

"it is possible," said mrs. waddington, "that in this particular instance george finch is not so blameworthy as i had at first supposed. but that does not alter the fact that he is a man whom any mother with her daughter's happiness at heart must regard with the deepest suspicion. he is an artist. he has deliberately chosen to live in a quarter of new york which is notorious for its loose-thinking and bohemian ways. and...."

the door opened.

"you rang, madam?"

"yes, ferris. tell bassett to bring the car round immediately. i am going into new york."

"very good, madam." the butler coughed. "i wonder, madam, if it is not taking a liberty, if i might be permitted to ride on the box-seat beside the chauffeur?"

"why?"

there are occasions in life when to give one's true reasons for some particular course of action would be tedious. the actual explanation of the butler's desire to visit the metropolis was that he wished to pay a call upon the editor of that bright and widely-read weekly paper, "town gossip," in order to turn an honest penny by informing him of the sensational scene which had occurred that day in the highest circles. almost immediately after the facts of this scandal in high life had been called to his attention, ferris had started to telephone the "town gossip" offices in order to establish communication, only to be informed that the editor was out of town. at his last attempt, however, a cautious assistant, convinced at length that the butler had something of real interest up his sleeve and was not disposed to reveal it to underlings, had recommended him to call upon l. lancelot biffen, the editor-in-chief, at his private address on the ninth floor of the sheridan apartment house, near washington square. mr. biffen, the assistant thought, would be back after dinner.

all this the butler could, of course, have revealed to his employer, but, like all men of intellect, he disliked long explanations.

"i have just received a communication informing me that a near relative of mine is ill in the city, madam."

"oh, very well."

"thank you, madam. i will inform bassett at once."

"besides," said mrs. waddington, as the door closed, going on where she had been interrupted, "for all we know, the girl's story may have been perfectly true, and her theft of the pearls the result of a sudden temptation on the spur of the moment."

"mother!"

"well, why not? i suppose she was in need of money. no doubt your finch callously omitted to provide for her in any way."

"you've got it all wrong," said sigsbee h.

"what do you know about it?" said mrs. waddington.

"nothing," said sigsbee h., prudently.

"then kindly refrain from talking nonsense."

mrs. waddington left the room with ponderous dignity, and sigsbee h., still prudent, closed the door.

"say, listen, molly," he said, "i've got to get up to new york right away. i've just got to."

"so have i. i certainly mean to see george to-night. i suppose he has gone back to his apartment."

"what'll we do?"

"directly the car has gone, i'll run you up in my two-seater."

"'at-a-baby!" said mr. waddington fervently. "that's the way to talk."

he kissed his daughter fondly.