Between her father and Mrs. Mellop Audrey had a most unpleasant time for the next two weeks. Sir Joseph was more bent¹ than ever upon her marriage with Lord Anvers, and asked him to dinner, so that he might prosecute² his suit. The proposed suitor was a pale-faced, sandy-haired, insignificant³ little man, with a pair of wicked-looking black eyes. At the first sight people never took Anvers to be the strong man he really was, as they were deceived by his uninteresting looks. But his eyes, and subsequently his acts, soon showed him in his true light as a capable little scoundrel, who extracted all he could from anyone and anything in order to benefit himself. Just now Anvers, being desperately⁴ hard up, decided⁵ that it was necessary for him to marry Audrey and Audrey's dowry. He wanted the money more than the maid, but, seeing that she was pretty, he was not unwilling⁶ to take the two together, even though this meant the loss of his freedom.  
Audrey took a violent dislike to him. Even before he had been suggested to her as a possible husband she had never liked him, as there was an atmosphere of impurity⁷ about him which repelled⁸ her. But that he should seek to be her husband made her more active in her dislike, and when he pressed his suit she told him plainly that she would never marry him. Lord Anvers, not being troubled with delicacy⁹, simply laughed.
 
"Oh, but you must marry me," he said brutally¹¹ to the quivering girl; "your father wishes it."
 
"My father can wish it, but he won't get it," retorted Miss Branwin, all her outraged¹² soul flashing with sapphire¹³ lights in her eyes. "I don't love you, and I never shall love you."
 
"Oh, I know there's another man," said Anvers, coolly. "Your father told me to be prepared for the objection, that your affections were engaged."
 
"My affections have nothing to do with the matter, Lord Anvers. If there wasn't another man in the world, I wouldn't marry you."
 
"Why not?"
 
"Oh! we won't go into particulars," she said sharply. "I have heard--"
 
"A lot of lies, I assure you. I'm not a bad chap, as chaps go, and, upon my soul, I'll try and make you happy."
 
"I want a better husband than one who is not bad as chaps go," said Audrey, coldly. "I want a man I can respect--a Galahad."
 
"Never heard of him," confessed Anvers, candidly¹⁴, "unless it's another name for a fellow called Shawe."
 
"Perhaps it is," replied Miss Branwin, holding herself very straight, "and you can tell my father that I shall marry no one else but Mr. Shawe."
 
"Oh, come, give me a chance," pleaded the aristocratic black sheep.
 
"I have given you a chance to propose to me and I refuse you."
 
Anvers looked bewildered. He was unaccustomed to this very plain speaking on the part of a spinster. "You don't let a chap down easy; and I shan't lose heart, anyhow. Your 'No' means 'Yes.' A woman sometimes doesn't accept a chap straight away."
 
"This woman will never accept you, Lord Anvers. So if you are a gentleman you will refrain from troubling me."
 
"'Fraid I can't, Miss Branwin. I love you."
 
"You love my money," she retorted scornfully, and exasperated¹⁵ by this obstinacy¹⁶. "You know it is only the money."
 
"Oh, money's a good thing," said the truthful¹⁷ Anvers, easily; "but, really, upon my word, you know, you're so pretty that I'd marry you without a penny."
 
Audrey burst out laughing. "Such candour on your part deserves candour on mine," she said quietly. "I say 'No' to your proposal, and I mean it."
 
For the time being Anvers saw that he was beaten, so took his leave. "But I shall come back again," he warned his lady-love. "I'll bring you up to the scratch somehow, see if I don't." And he reported the conversation to Sir Joseph, with the remark that he would never stop proposing until Audrey accepted his soiled title and his brutal¹⁰ self.
 
Of course, Branwin scolded the girl. She made no protest during the storm of words, and let Sir Joseph talk himself into exhaustion¹⁸. When the millionaire could say no more she faced him calmly. "I shall never marry Lord Anvers, papa, and I shall marry Ralph whenever I can."
 
"Oh, you will, and when--when, confound you?" roared Branwin.
 
"When he learns who killed my mother," said Audrey, and passed out of the room without noticing the sudden greyness which replaced the purple hues¹⁹ of her father's large face.
 
What with anxiety to learn who had murdered her mother, and with the insistent²⁰ troubles around her, Audrey felt angry with everyone and everything. Even Ralph seemed to be against her since he had waxed lukewarm in prosecuting²¹ his search for the assassin. Audrey had not seen him since he had advised her to heed²² the warning of the anonymous²³ letter, and she had received no communication likely to show that he was looking into the matter of the murder. Under these circumstances, she resolved to take up the rôle of an amateur detective herself. Since there was no one else who loved the dead sufficiently²⁴ to avenge²⁵ the crime, Audrey at least made up her mind to hunt down the murderer.
 
She began one afternoon by driving to Perry Toat's office, for Ralph had written down its whereabouts. Sir Joseph, sullen²⁶ and angry with his daughter, had gone to his club, and Mrs. Mellop in her bedroom was fretting²⁷ over the destruction of her hopes. Therefore, there was no one to spy on the girl, and, having dressed herself plainly, she took a taxi-cab in Kensington High Street and drove to the Strand²⁸. Perry Toat's office was in Buckingham Street, and the detective herself was disengaged. She admitted Audrey into her private sanctum the moment she read the name on the card.
 
"I thought you would come, Miss Branwin," said Perry Toat, cordially, "as Mr. Shawe told me that you were different from most girls. Few would wish to undertake the search you propose to make."
 
"Few girls, if any, have had a mother murdered in so barbarous a fashion," was Audrey's reply, and she eyed with some disapproval²⁹ the garish³⁰ complexion³¹ and burnished³² hair and general renovation³³ of Miss Toat.
 
The detective smiled, guessing the thought of her visitor. "This and this"--she touched her hair and skin--"are a concession³⁴ to business demands. I had to submit to this sort of thing in order to gain permission to remain for searching purposes at the Pink Shop."
 
"Oh!" Audrey understood. "And did you find out anything?"
 
"I told Mr. Shawe all I had discovered, and what theories I ............