Miss Doon smiled and looked significantly at the detective. "I do not care about living in so damp a house as 'The Refuge,'" she said. "I will marry the professor when he can give me a better home. I suppose he is not well off?" "At present he isn't," said the professor's man of business, "but some day he may come in for a few thousands a year." "Oh!" Miss Doon gasped, "how delicious. I would certainly marry him then and leave my present place. Not that I have anything to complain of," she added graciously, "but I have always felt that it was my high lot to be a lady of rank." "Quite so. And if the professor gets this money he can resume his rank, which is that of a Greek baron." "Oh, good gracious!" Miss Doon gasped again; "then I would be the Baroness Bocaros." "Certainly. But you had better stop in your place for a time till the professor gets his money. I suppose you get on well with Mrs. Fane?" "We are like sisters," said the fair Emily; "she entrusts me with all her secrets." "Has she secrets?" asked Jasher quickly. Miss Doon coloured, tossed her head, and bit her lip. She saw that she had said too much. "I am true to my mistress, sir," said she loftily, "and what she asked me to do, I did, without betraying her." Jasher was puzzled. He thought the girl was a fool to talk thus, and wondered what Mrs. Fane could have asked her to do. However, it was not a propitious moment to get the truth out of the maid as she was now more or less on her guard, so he deftly changed the conversation. "I suppose you find Ajax Villa unpleasant after the murder?" he suggested. Miss Doon closed her eyes. "Don't speak of it. My nerves are shattered. It's awful. And to think no one ever knew who killed the poor soul." "I suppose you don't?" "Certainly not," replied Miss Doon violently, "I was at the seaside with the other servants. I know nothing." "Are the other servants pleasant?" asked Jasher, baffled again. Emily shrugged her ample shoulders. "Oh yes," she said; "Gander, the cook, is the most amusing." Here she began to laugh. "We had such a joke the other day," she added. "I intended to tell the professor." "What was that?" asked the detective carelessly. Miss Doon recounted the episode of the dagger. "It was in the dustbin, and Gander thought the jewels were real. She gave notice, only to find that the dagger was a stage jewel that had been worn by Mrs. Fane at a fancy ball." "You knew that, I suppose?" said Jasher, much interested. "No. She has not been to a fancy ball since I was with her, and that is three years. But she said the dagger was hers, and Gander was in a great state." Jasher asked for a description of the dagger, which she gave. Then Mrs. Varney returned with the tea, and the conversation became more general. But the detective left with a firm conviction that Calvert had left the dagger in the dust-hole after killing the woman. CHAPTER XIV THE NEW TENANT