ously, he reflected, no mere desire for an immediate view of her securities was at the bottom of Lorine's demand. What her real purpose was he could not determine to himself. Whether she imagined that he had the Surakarta in his safe or some other concealment in his office which he must expose to her if displaying her securities; whether she expected in some way to obtain the stone from him alone, should she succeed in finding it, he could only guess. Though, outwardly, she was the soul of coolness and unconcern as he rejoined her, he was conscious that constantly she betrayed, subtly, the sense of some covert purpose. During his absence, she had ordered a taxicab. Sitting beside him on their way through the city, she neither avoided nor tried to make small talk. She, indeed, seemed to be watching him to
