We gave over the futile search at last. Mr. Jelnik sat down and took his head in his hands, for the moment a prey to overwhelming disappointment. I could have wept for him. Presently: "Is it so hard to lose that which you never possessed?" I ventured to ask. "It is always bitter to fail." "But you haven't really failed. You have succeeded in proving that both Richard and Freeman were the victims of an insane jealousy and a terrible revenge." "Jessamine's confession might well be set aside: insane people often accuse themselves of crimes committed only in their own disordered brains. The one indisputable proof would be the jewels in my hands." He added, with a faint smile: "I should have liked to see those accursed things made clean by your wearing them, Sophy." "I don't want them!" I said, and my head went up. "I don't care _that_ for all the Hynds jewels ever lost! I wouldn't have come here to-night for their sake or mine, not if they were worth an empire's ransom! I wanted them for Richard's sake, and--and yours." "I know, I know. At first I wanted them for him and me, too. Afterward I wanted them for him and for you, Sophy." "For me? _I_ have no right to them. What have _I_ to do with Hynds jewels?" And then I stopped. If Jessamine's confession were true--and I believed in my heart that every word Jessamine had written was the truth--what right had I to Hynds House itself? "As to that, I have no right to Hynds House, either. It is yours," I said. He stared at me thoughtfully. "It is yours," I repeated, gaining courage. "I am an outsider, to whom this house was left from motives of malice and revenge. Mr. Jelnik, this thing must be set straight. We will show Jessamine's confession and clear Richard's name. We will bring Freeman's diary forward to prove the truth of our assertions. Then you can come into your own." "Ah!" said Mr. Jelnik, gently, "I see. Quite simple, and perfectly feasible. And after I have taken Hynds House, what of you? What do you get?" "I get out," I said briefly. And a horrid qualm came over me. Leave Hynds House, forever? Go away from Hyndsville, leaving this friendlier, pleasanter, happier life behind? "You are forgetting my training," I reminded him, trying to keep my voice steady. "I can always do what I did before I came here. I--I'm really an excellent private secretary, Mr. Jelnik." "That," said Mr. Jelnik, smiling curiously, "may very well be. But I think the stars in their courses fought to bring you here. And I really do not at all relish the notion of your turning backward into a private secretary, although there is, of course, the alternative of The Author. And what of Alicia?" "Alicia's sense of justice is quite as well developed as mine," I told him proudly.