"Delighted to see you, Mr. Barnes. You are very kind to come and see me. For doing so, I am almost willing to forgive you for the wrong which you have done me." "Wrong? What wrong?" "Do you remember the day you came to see me at the Fifth Avenue, about the button which you had found? You asked me to show you the seventh of my own set. I agreed on condition that you would not annoy the lady." "Well!" "You broke your promise--that is all." "In what way?" "In the first place you bribed her maid to tell her a lie, and leave her, so that one of your spies could take her place. Secondly, your spy did take her place. The result of which was that Miss Remsen could not re-engage her old maid, and has had much trouble to get another as good." "I did not foresee, when I made that promise, that such an emergency would arise as did later." "Very true! But I did, and I warned you that you would gain nothing by making the promise, since you would only find my own story verified by your visit." "Well, I am very sorry, and will say that it shall not occur again." "But, Mr. Barnes, it has occurred again." "How so?" "Why, she cannot leave her home at any time, without being dogged by your spies." Mr. Barnes bit his lip in chagrin to find how well this man was acquainted with his plans, but he replied unhesitatingly, "This time you are wrong. I promised you not to annoy Miss Remsen in connection with the particular case of which we were then speaking. My men have shadowed her in connection with another affair." "What other affair?" "Abduction." "Abduction? Absurd! Who on earth has Miss Remsen abducted?" "The girl Rose Mitchel." "And who, pray, is the girl Rose Mitchel? The daughter of the murdered woman?" "Perhaps. That is what I intend to discover. She passed however, as your daughter." "Ah! Now can you prove that she is not?" "No." "Very good. Then, so far as your information goes, Rose Mitchel who passed as my daughter, was removed from a certain house, to a certain other house, to you unknown." He paused a moment as though to enjoy Mr. Barnes's discomfiture, then continued: "She was taken, so you suspect, but cannot prove, by Miss Remsen. Now, then, if Miss Remsen, my affianced wife, takes a girl who is my own child from one house to another, where is the abduction so long as I make no complaint?" "Let us drop this nonsense, Mr. Mitchel. You know very well that that child was removed for a purpose, else she would not be hidden away. If Miss Remsen had a hand in this, she was aiding you to baffle detective investigation, and that was an illegal act. Therefore we have the right to watch her, in order to discover what we can." "Very well, then we will grant you that privilege. Much good may it do you. But as to the removal of the child, that was done because your spy Lucette had discovered where she was, and I did not choose to have her annoyed." "What makes you so certain that this Lucette was my spy, as you term it?"