"Yes, Anita _is_ a perfect example of a blonde. Why, she is the daughter of an old school-mate of my aunt's, and so that's why Aunt Lucy took her, and then she proved such an efficient secretary and such a patient, meek thing to scold, that she kept her position." "Miss Frayne doesn't seem so extraordinarily meek to me." "No, indeed! She's not meek at all. But she always was to Miss Carrington. That, of course, to keep the position, which was both easy and lucrative. Easy, that is, except for my aunt's temper. That was vented on poor Anita, morning, noon and night." "That, then, might give us a motive for Miss Frayne's desire to be rid of her cruel mistress and to get the inheritance that she knew would come to her at Miss Carrington's death." Pauline shuddered. "I can't think of such a thing, Mr. Stone, but, if anybody in this house is to be suspected of the awful thing, it can be no one but Anita. She tried, I know, to supplant me in my aunt's affection, and to have my inheritance, or part of it, transferred to herself." "You know this?" "Yes. For some time she has been making insinuations and telling my aunt tales about me,--untrue ones,--that would make Aunt Lucy angry at me. I tell you this, Mr. Stone, because I want you to know Anita Frayne as she really is." There was the ring of sincerity in the tone, there was a look of truth in the big, dark eyes, and there was a most appealing expression on the lovely face that gazed into his own, but Fleming Stone turned from the speaker with a polite but decided gesture of dismissal, saying, "Please ask Miss Frayne to come here a few moments." XVII THE OVERHEARD CONVERSATION