She turned and went away, and they did not see each other again that night, or rather morning. CHAPTER XXXIII THE WORTH OF A JEWEL The next morning, rather earlier than usual, Mr. Barringcourt called to see Miss Crokerly. He saw her alone; but as he was crossing the hall on going away, he was stopped by hearing Rosalie’s voice from the staircase, and by seeing her coming toward him. “I have been waiting for you,” said she, raising her finger as if in warning as she came nearer, and speaking very softly. “The dragon is sleeping, completely under the influence of a powerful drug. In the interim I’ve brought you this. The thing you asked for last night.” And she held toward him a tiny jewel-case. He took it slowly, looking at her, and then at it. Then the contents dawned upon him, and he looked at her again and laughed, though his eyes had a piercing keenness in them that took away the effect of the laughter. Then her manner changed, and she too laughed. She raised her lips to his ear and whispered: “I drugged the dragon with _Reason_, think what you will,” and still laughing, would have moved away. Now it just chanced (for those who find no excuse for what followed) that there hung just above them a bunch of misletoe. Miss Crokerly was a great advocate of Christmas parties for children, had had three such since December began, and holly and other Christmas decorations were much in evidence. But neither person concerned was at the moment cognisant of this fact. One was looking down, and one was looking up, but not at the ceiling. But all the same, in opposition to the laws of etiquette, yet quite in accordance with those of nature, Mr. Barringcourt suddenly stooped and took her hands and kissed her. It wasn’t a bit like the ordinary kiss a man would give a woman. It fell as softly on her lips as a breath of snow—nothing of fire—so that she laughed again, and shook her hands free, and saying “Thank you,” ran away again. After that Mr. Barringcourt went away, looking as thoughtful and preoccupied as if he had never been frivolous in his life. He went home, and passed at once to his own private laboratory and study. He took with him the tiny jewel-case, and going up to one of the big windows facing the front of the house, took out the stone and looked at it. He looked at it so long that a bystander would have grown impatient. Then he went to the other side of the room, and opened what seemed to be a cupboard, but was really a set of shutters opening upon a window looking on the garden at the back. The light from this window showed the jewel differently.