"Oh, come, give me a chance," pleaded the aristocratic black sheep. "I have given you a chance to propose to me and I refuse you." Anvers looked bewildered. He was unaccustomed to this very plain speaking on the part of a spinster. "You don't let a chap down easy; and I shan't lose heart, anyhow. Your 'No' means 'Yes.' A woman sometimes doesn't accept a chap straight away." "This woman will never accept you, Lord Anvers. So if you are a gentleman you will refrain from troubling me." "'Fraid I can't, Miss Branwin. I love you." "You love my money," she retorted scornfully, and exasperated by this obstinacy. "You know it is only the money." "Oh, money's a good thing," said the truthful Anvers, easily; "but, really, upon my word, you know, you're so pretty that I'd marry you without a penny." Audrey burst out laughing. "Such candour on your part deserves candour on mine," she said quietly. "I say 'No' to your proposal, and I mean it." For the time being Anvers saw that he was beaten, so took his leave. "But I shall come back again," he warned his lady-love. "I'll bring you up to the scratch somehow, see if I don't." And he reported the conversation to Sir Joseph, with the remark that he would never stop proposing until Audrey accepted his soiled title and his brutal self. Of course, Branwin scolded the girl. She made no protest during the storm of words, and let Sir Joseph talk himself into exhaustion. When the millionaire could say no more she faced him calmly. "I shall never marry Lord Anvers, papa, and I shall marry Ralph whenever I can." "Oh, you will, and when--when, confound you?" roared Branwin. "When he learns who killed my mother," said Audrey, and passed out of the room without noticing the sudden greyness which replaced the purple hues of her father's large face. What with anxiety to learn who had murdered her mother, and with the insistent troubles around her, Audrey felt angry with everyone and everything. Even Ralph seemed to be against her since he had waxed lukewarm in prosecuting his search for the assassin. Audrey had not seen him since he had advised her to heed the warning of the anonymous letter, and she had received no communication likely to show that he was looking into the matter of the murder. Under these circumstances, she resolved to take up the _rôle_ of an amateur detective herself. Since there was no one else who loved the dead sufficiently to avenge the crime, Audrey at least made up her mind to hunt down the murderer.