WHITEWASH
hardly worth five hundred francs aside from its artistic value. Rose diamonds have no market, and the emerald, good color, was terribly flawed. There's only one chance in a million that that girl may have seen it on the old lady; another chance in a thousand that she would recall it sufficiently to identify it. But—I must get the thing from Philippa at any cost," he said, aloud. "She's wearing it!" flashed over him. He drank another glass of punch and sat down. "She has her sable cape on," he argued; "it's becoming; she won't take it off unless the place gets insupportably hot. Perhaps— But allowing she does show it—what then?" He clenched his hand. "Vanity, pride—those are her weaknesses. I must compromise her so completely that to save herself she will have to work with me. She's a fool, and she loves the venturesome, provided she thinks she won t be caught. She believes she can manage men, in any and all situations—we'll see. She'll go to dinner if she can give her aunt a good excuse. She must be dining somewhere else. A girl of that kind always has a friend to use as a blind, either because she's good-
