"If you, sir," Brinnen remarked, "could develop the sagacity of a French or German Secret Service man, and fasten upon the life of that young man, you would probably gain the adventure which you seek." "I am the very man for the task," the poet declared eagerly. "I have stuck like a leech to my friend Aaron Rodd here, in the hopes of travelling with him a little way into the land where adventures are as plentiful as gooseberries. The only one to which he has introduced me has been highly satisfactory, in its way," he declared, bowing to Henriette, "and the remembrance of it will be a happiness to me all my life, but one cannot live on one adventure alone. I am eager for more. I claim that young man, Rodd, do you hear? I claim him." "He is yours," the other acquiesced grimly. "Poor fellow! One is almost inclined to pity him." Cresswell smiled in superior fashion. "My dear fellow," he said, "you are, without doubt, a man of energy and brains, but what you lack is initiative. Initiative is the gift vouchsafed to genius. I have genius, therefore I have initiative. To you, the affair connected with this young man appears at present to be as impenetrable as a blank wall. You would not know where to start. Wait. You shall watch my methods." "In the meantime," Henriette whispered, gazing intently towards the doorway, "behold, Madame de Borria and her recovered necklace!" They all turned their heads. The South American woman was on her way through the room and around her neck flashed the light from her wonderful necklace. Aaron Rodd leaned a little forward in his chair. "She is soon wearing it again," he remarked. Brinnen shrugged his shoulders. "Why not? It was lost only for a few hours. Madame had the good sense to follow her husband's advice and to offer that greatest of lures to the educated thief--a reward and no questions asked. Madame deserves to have recovered her necklace--and it becomes her well.... Shall we take our coffee outside?" They all rose to their feet and left the restaurant together. The poet thrust his arm through Brinnen's and led him on one side, talking earnestly. Aaron was left alone for a few minutes with Henriette. They found a corner as far as possible from the strains of the over-persistent band. "It is three months to-day," he reminded her, "since I saw you first in the gardens of the Embankment." "What a memory!" she murmured. "And I, like the very forward person you have since discovered me to be, made tentative overtures to you with the object of discovering whether you were a lawyer not too squeamish about your clients or their business." His face hardened a little. "Are we coming soon," he asked, "to the end of your stock--or rather your brother's stock of jewels?" "Why?" she whispered, looking up at him with slightly contracted eyebrows.