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"I wish to goodness you had not done so, Miss Hunt!"
"How strangely you speak! Is it possible you know something about it?"
"I do; and because I don't wish the hansom-driver to get into trouble, and because it is right that you should have your money back, I have brought you this." As the captain spoke he took a small packet and laid it on the table near Miss Hunt.
"Does this contain my purse?"
"It contains the hundred pounds which were in your purse."
"But not my pretty purse itself?"
"No."
Miss Hunt eagerly broke the seals, untied the string, and opened the parcel. The gold was wrapped in tissue paper; the notes were in a neat roll.
"Count the money, please," said Keith.
She did so, and in a very business-like way.
"The sum is quite correct," she said. And now she raised her bright, dark eyes, and looked full at the young man. "What is the meaning of all this?" she inquired. "Why should you give me back my hundred pounds?"
"You are at liberty to draw any conclusions which occur to you," said Keith. He spoke deliberately, and with pauses between his words. "I trust to what I am sure is your kindly nature not to make things too difficult."
It was
with an effort that he could bring out the words; they stung him as they passed his lips.
"I cannot give you back your purse, I regret to say," he continued, "but the money at least is yours again. Will you kindly let the superintendent at Scotland Yard know, in order that the driver may not get into trouble?"
"I will do so; and thank you very much. Then you can really give me no particulars about my purse?"
"I regret I cannot."
"This is strange!"
"It must appear so to you." Keith looked full at her. "Do you intend to make this story public?" he asked.
She laughed, and her laugh was almost harsh.
"It would make a good story," she said then; "and we do pine for that sort of thing in society, girl a rich girl loses her purse. An officer in one of Her Majesty's regiments brings her back the money, not the purse."
"You can make your story exceedingly funny," said Keith, but as he spoke he did not smile.
"I will never make it funny," she replied, and she rose and drew herself up. "I am not ungenerous, and if I fail to read between the lines, or to see what you mean me to see, or to understand whether you are acting with chivalry and the desire to screen another, or because yours is merely a tardy repentance for something you yourself have done, you cannot blame me. I shall never know which motive actuates you. I shall be satisfied to go without knowing. The money is returned to me, and the affair goes no further."
"Thank you," replied Keith. Then he added, and the words came out with a visible effort, "Put the chivalrous theory quite out of your head. I thank you most sincerely. Good-afternoon."
He left her, and never was a girl more astonished than she as she stood, her hand resting on the table, with the gold and notes close to her. She was interrupted in her meditations by the entrance of a stout, very red-faced man.
"Hallo, Kate!" he said. "I am glad you are home. I have just requested Jameson to bring up tea. Why, what a lot of money you have lying loose about the place!"
"Only a hundred pounds, dad. I got it from the bank this morning."
"A very careless way to keep it," said Mr. Hunt "very careless indeed! Money is hard to win and easy to lose. You are never aware of that fact. I wish you were not quite so careless."
"I have been made painfully aware of that fact to-day," thought Katherine, but she did not speak her thoughts aloud. She sat down and gazed straight before her. "The money is right enough; don't fret, dad." Then she added, after a pause: "What is the news from the Transvaal?"
"Have you not heard? We are sending out troops, doubtless as a precautionary measure, immediately."
"Do you happen to know who are going?"
Hunt mentioned two or three regiments.
"Is the North Essex Light Infantry going?" asked the girl suddenly.
"The North Essex Light Infantry!" repeated Hunt, in a tone of surprise. "Why, yes; a contingent of that regiment is ordered south. But why? Do you know any one belonging to it?"
"One man. I shall be sorry if he gets killed," she said, with apparent carelessness.
"You always were a very droll girl, Katherine. How long have you known this man?"
"I only met him to-day. I have taken a fancy to him."
"Why so, child?"
"Because he is one of those rare products of modern times, a man who puts a woman's honour before his own."
"Now you talk in riddles."
"Doubtless, father; and you are not to hear anything more. Only I respect him."
"Take up your money, and don't leave it lying about any longer, Katherine."
She took her money. She put the gold back into the tissue paper and rolled up the notes, and went slowly out of the room up to her own. She had a little cabinet built into the wall, where she kept her most valuable diamonds and trinkets. She unlocked the little cabinet, pressed a spring revealing a secret drawer, and put the notes and gold into it.