GUSTAV KNOCKED AT the door of the Thurlows' flat, and found that the ambassador was alone. "Can I speak to. Miss Thurlow?" he asked, having decided that he would do better with her. Irene was packing in her own room.

Her father said curtly: "She is busy now. What do you want?"

Gustav saw that it would be impolitic to appear unwilling to give a frank answer. He said: "It is a message from Mr. Kindell. He asked if you would be kind enough to convey this valise to London on his behalf, if he should be detained here."

"Detained by the police?"

"That was how I understood it to be."

"Why did he not come himself?"

"How can he come, he being under arrest?"

That was news to Mr. Thurlow. Irene and he, having been occupied in packing in their own rooms, may have been the only people in the hotel who were not already aware that Kindell had been removed in the escort of the police.

"Has he been arrested? Is he still in the hotel?"

"He was taken away about an hour ago."

As Gustav answered he observed that Irene had entered the room from its opposite door. Seeing him, and hearing what was I said, she stood still.

Her father's questions continued sharply. "Then do the police know of this? Did you bring it with their consent?"

"He gave it to my charge before they had arrived."

"Then you must tell him that it is a matter with which I can have nothing to do."

"How can I do that, now that he is gone? It is very awkward for me."

"Then you should hand it to the police."

"Mr. Kindell said that it was so small a thing that he was sure mademoiselle would not refuse."

This was Gustav's last effort, for the programme of surrendering it to the police was one which even with Professor Blinkwell's permission, he was reluctant to adopt, and it had an immediate effect.

Irene came forward, so that her father became aware of her presence. She asked, "Did you bring a message to me?"

"It was you whom I was instructed to see."

"And Mr. Kindell really has been arrested?"

"Yes. He has been removed by the police."

"Then you can leave the valise here."

"Irene," her father said sharply, "I forbid you to have anything to do with that young man's baggage."

But Gustav had laid the valise down already, and left the room. He thought that the probability that the valise would be delivered in London had become very great.

So it had. Irene had had a miserable hour, being unsure of several things she was anxious to know, but having become aware of one - that she had been both unkind and unfair. Being miserable, she was in a mood to quarrel with someone, and here was an opportunity put into her hand, and her father would suit her requirements better than a stranger could have been expected to do.

"He's our cousin," she said. "We're surely not going to let him down over a small thing like that."

"It mayn'............