"He hasn't--before. But you see to-day he had such a lot to tell me about the things--how he came by them, and all that. And every single one of them has got a story. And he has such wonderful things! After luncheon he showed them to me--some of them: such marvelous bronzes and carved ivories and Babylonian tablets. He's got one with a real thumb-print on it--think of it, a thumb-print five thousand years old! And he's got a wonderful Buddha two thousand years old from a Chinese temple, and he knows the officer who got it--during the Boxer Rebellion, you know. And he's got another, not so old, of Himalayan Indian wood, exquisitely carved, and half covered with jewels. "Why, mother, he's traveled all over the world, and everywhere he's found something wonderful or beautiful to bring home. I couldn't begin to tell you, if I talked all night. And he seemed so pleased because I was interested, and because I could appreciate to some extent, their value." "I can--imagine it!" There was a little catch in Helen Denby's voice, but Betty did not notice it. "Yes, and that makes me think," she went on blithely. "He said such a funny thing once. It was when I held in my hand the Babylonian tablet with the thumb-mark. I had just been saying how I wished the little tablet had the power to transport the holder of it back to a vision of the man who had made that thumb-print, when he looked at me so queerly, and muttered: 'Humph! they _are_ more than potatoes to you, aren't they?' Potatoes, indeed! What do you suppose made him say that? Oh, and that is when he asked me, too, how I came to know so much about jades and ivories and Egyptian antiques." "What did you tell him?" At the startled half terror in her mother's voice Betty's eyes widened. "Why, that I learned in London, of course, with you and Gladys and Miss Hughes, poking around old shops there--and everywhere else that we could find them, wherever we were. _You_ know how we used to go 'digging,' as Gladys called it." "Yes, I know," subsided the mother, a little faintly. "Well, we worked all the afternoon--_together!_--Mr. Denby and I did. What do you think of that?" resumed Betty, after a moment's pause. "And not once since this morning have I heard any tiredness in Mr. Burke Denby's voice, if you please." "But how--how long is this going to take you?"