pleasant questioning, and perhaps involve the servants again. If he
could only put it back where he had found it! But Cornelia, of course,
would know it had not been there in her room all this week. It would be
better to wait until the coast was clear and hide it in Cornelia's closet,
where it might have been put by mistake and forgotten. It was going to be
hard to explain, but that was the best plan he could evolve.

He took the hat out and held it on his hand, looking at it from different
angles and trying to remember just how the girl had looked out at him from
under its drooping plumes. Then with a sigh he laid it carefully in its
box again and went to bed.

The morning brought clearer thought, and when the summons to breakfast
pealed through the hall he took the box boldly in his hand and descended
to the dining-room, where he presented the hat to his astonished sister.

"I am afraid I am the criminal, Cornelia," he said in his pleasantest
manner. "I'm sorry I can't explain just how this thing got on my
closet-shelf. I must have put it there myself through some unaccountable
mix-up. It's too bad I couldn't have found it before and so saved you a
lot of worry. But you are one hat the richer for it, for I paid the bill
yesterday. Please accept it with my compliments."

Cornelia exclaimed with delight over the recovered hat.

"But how in the world could it have got into your closet, Tryon? It was
impossible. I left it my room, I know I did, for I spoke to Norah about it
before I left. How do you account for it?"

"Oh, I don't attempt to account for it," he said, with a gay wave of his
hand. "I've been so taken up with other things this past week, I may have
done almost anything. By the way, Mother, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear
that Judge Blackwell has made me a most generous offer of business
relations, and that I have decided to accept it."

Amid the exclamations of delight over this bit of news, the hat was
forgotten for a time, and when the mother and sister finally rev