"He affects to be devoted to Cora," her mother went on bitterly, "and follows her about everywhere, without the slightest encouragement on her part, I can assure you, but I have known him to take a most insolent tone about her. The very first time I ever saw him, he was sitting beside me at a party, and I said, as Cora came across the room with that magnificent walk of hers, 'She moves like a full-rigged ship, doesn't she?' He answered: 'Or rather, more like a submarine; you never know where she'll pop up next. Yes, there's a sort of practical mystery about Cora very suitable to modern warfare.' He called her Cora behind her back, but not to her face, be sure. And very soon a poem of his appeared in one of the magazines--'To My Love, Comparing Her to a Submarine.' I thought it most insulting." "And what did Cora think?" asked Crane. "She hardly read the thing through. Cora is far too sensible to pay much attention to poetry." "But poets are different, I suppose," answered Crane. Personally, he was pleased with the submarine simile. "No, nor poets, either," said Mrs. Falkener tartly, and rising she hurried away to see if by some fortunate chance her errant daughter had returned without letting her know. Left alone, Crane decided to give his friend his long-desired chance. "Well, Tuck," he said, "you look in fine form. What have you been doing since I went away?" "I have not had a very agreeable day," said Tucker, in a voice so low and deep that it was almost a growl. "No? Not a return of your old dyspepsia, I hope," said Crane. Tucker shook his head impatiently. "At breakfast," he said, "I heard from Mrs. Falkener, who had heard from her daughter, that you had observed the loss of the miniature that used to lie on this table. Such things cannot be taken lightly, Burton. The owners might put almost any price on an article of that kind--wretched as it was, as a work of art--and you would be forced to pay. You see, it could not be replaced. I thought it my duty, therefore, to send for each of the servants and question them on the subject." "You thought it your duty to send for Jane-Ellen, Tuck?" Again Tucker frowned. "I said I sent for all of the servants. Smithfield displayed, to my mind, a most suspicious ignorance and indifference to the whole subject. The housemaid was so hysterical and frightened that if I did not know a great deal of such cases, I should suspect her--" "And was the cook frightened?" said Crane, with a flicker of a smile. "No," Tucker explained, "she did not appear to be frightened, but then, I may tell you that I do not suspect the cook of complicity in the theft."