It was late in the afternoon when Captain Verinder and his nephew arrived at Withington Chase. Under the circumstances, Sir Gilbert could not well do otherwise than invite the Captain to dine and sleep there, and when Verinder, although secretly overjoyed, pleaded that his dress clothes were in his portmanteau at the cloakroom of the London terminus, his excuse was at once overruled. "If that is your only objection, sir, you shall be kept in countenance by my grandson and myself. For once in a way we will all wear tweeds at dinner."

Retaining Luigi\'s hand in his for a few seconds, Sir Gilbert gazed somewhat wistfully into the young man\'s face. "You have not brought back much of the tan of travel on your cheeks," he said. "How is that, I wonder? Not for years have we had so hot an autumn as the one now drawing to a close."

"My face never either tans or freckles, sir, however hot the weather may be," explained Luigi with a touch of heightened colour. "It is a fact for which I am unable to account."

"Humph! At all events I\'m glad to see that your cheeks can take a blush. I am glad, too, judging from your letters, that you seem to have enjoyed yourself while away, although that was by no means the object I had in view in sending you abroad. I trust that your experiences during the last month will not be thrown away upon you, but that they will be productive of benefit to you in more ways than one." With that he turned away, murmuring to himself: "What can be the reason why he never looks me straight in the face? Why do his eyes always flicker and drop when I try to fix them with my own? It is a bad trait, a very bad trait, and it fills me with a vague sense of mistrust. If he would but confront me with Lisle\'s open unflinching look! That young fellow\'s eyes are as clear and honest as the day."

It was an immense relief to Luigi to find that his grandfather made no mention of Miss Jennings. His fear had been lest, during his absence, that young person might have sought out Sir Gilbert and have enlightened him as to the absurd offer which he, Luigi, had made her on her birthday night when under the insidious influence of Veuve Cliequot. When, therefore, his grandfather turned away without mentioning "Miss J.\'s" name he felt that a great danger had passed him by.

But while one weight had been lifted off his mind, another crushed him down with a force from which he found it impossible to free himself. Ever before him loomed the black shadow of the deed to which he had become engaged. Sleeping or waking, it held him with a nightmare grip. He ate his dinner not because he wanted or cared for it, but because not to have done so would have laid him open to question and remark. After dinner came whist, Captain Verinder making up the quartette, vice Everard Lisle. Ethel and Luigi, being free to follow their own devices, engaged in a desultory conversation, chiefly anent the latter\'s recent travel experiences, which before long began to languish and presently died out. Then, with a muttered excuse that he was altogether behindhand with English news, Luigi seized on a batch of illustrated papers and buried himself among them, while Ethel\'s face brightened perceptibly. She saw before her not merely the prospect of a cosy hour with a favourite author, but an escape from a tête-à-tête with Mr. Lewis Clare.

Next morning the Captain routed Luigi out of bed at an untimely hour. "I want you to show me Sir Gilbert\'s study," he said, "and the desk in which he keeps the key of the strong room."

There was no difficulty about doing that, because the study door was never locked overnight, in order that the servants might have access to it betimes, their orders being to have it in readiness for Sir Gilbert by ten o\'clock to the minute.

The room was empty when Luigi opened the door and went in, followed by his uncle. "That is the door of the strong room--iron, as you see--and this is the drawer in which the key of it is always kept," said the former.

"And where is the key of the drawer kept?" queried the Captain. "It is one of a bunch grandfather carries about with him and rarely lets out of his own keeping."

Verinder glanced at the door, then he tried the drawer, which, as a matter of course, was locked, and then he stooped and examined the keyhole.

"As far as I can judge," he said, "the lock is of quite an ordinary kind, and you ought not to experience much difficulty in picking it."

"But what will grandfather think when he finds the drawer unlocked?" questioned Luigi.

"Why, merely that he must have omitted to lock it overnight. Of course the key of the strong room will be there just as he left it, and there will be nothing to arouse his suspicions that it has even been touched. He will simply tell himself that he must be more careful in future, and there will be an end of the matter."

It was too early for breakfast, so they left the house and went for a stroll in the grounds.

"I wish, Lewis, my boy," remarked the Captain cheerfully, "you would try not to look quite so glum and down in the mouth. If you had a murder on your mind you could hardly look more wretched than you do. Do, for goodness sake, assume a cheerfulness; even if you can\'t feel it--though what cause you have for being anything else than cheerful, I cannot for the life of me imagine."

"Oh, I\'m not like you; I haven\'t nerves of cast iron; I wish I had," retorted Luigi. "Be cheerful, indeed! It\'s all very fine, but how is it possible for me to look other than down in the mouth when I remember the desperate business I\'m booked to go through with three nights hence?"

"Desperate business, indeed! What nonsense is this? There\'s nothing desperate about it, nothing whatever. Here\'s the affair in a nutshell: you wait in your room till the clock strikes midnight; then you kick off your shoes, steal downstairs in the dark, and make your way to the study. Then you open the slide of your dark lantern and proceed to manipulate your picklocks. After a minute or two the lock yields to your coaxing; you open the drawer and there lies the key you want, ready to your hand. Five minutes later the bonds are yours. By half-past twelve you are not merely back in your own room, but in bed and asleep. Voilà tout! Desperate business, quotha!"

For sole reply Luigi shrugged his shoulders and spread out the palms of his hands with one of those indescribable gestures which an Englishman may perhaps caricature, but cannot even passably imitate.

Although Captain Verinder had had no intimation to that effect, he was quite aware that his visit was expected to come to an end some time between breakfast and luncheon. Accordingly, as soon as the former meal was over, he proceeded to make his adieux. Having said goodbye to Lady Pell and Miss Thursby, he turned to Sir Gilbert, who had already rung the bell and ordered the dog-cart to be brought round, and who now accompanied him as far as the entrance hall, with Luigi bringing up the rear. While waiting they chatted about the weather and other indifferent topics. Presently the dog-cart drove up and Luigi flung wide the door. Then Sir Gilbert, drawing himself up and putting on his most grandiose manner, said, "We shall look to see you again at Withington Chase before very long, Captain Verinder." It was vague and yet sufficiently courteous. Then, as the Captain bowed and murmured his thanks: "I need scarcely tell you how very much obliged I am to you for the care and attention you have lavished on my grandson during the time he has been under your charge, and, as a proof that such is the case, I trust you will do me the favour of accepting this trifling recognition at my hands."

As the Baronet turned back into the house after favouring Verinder with a parting wave of the hand as the latter was being driven off, he muttered to himself: "I can\'t help it, I really can\'t, but I do not like that man. Of course it\'s the sheerest prejudice on my part, and, knowing it to be such, I am all the more bound to do my best to get the better of it."

When Captain Verinder opened the e............