“It must be attended to today?”

“The case is very urgent I am told.”

“But how can I leave my guests—­especially Captain West?”

West leaned forward.

“Do not hesitate on my account.  I can easily amuse myself; or, if there is room, and it is not disagreeable to Mr. Coolidge, I might enjoy being of the party.”

“Why, of course,” she coincided eagerly.  “Why couldn’t he come along?  There will be plenty of room if I operate the car.  It is a case of destitution of which Uncle Percival has just learned—­a widow and three children actually suffering.  Surely it can do no harm for Captain West to accompany us?”

Coolidge exhibited no enthusiasm over the proposition; indeed West felt his response almost discourteous, yet this very suspicion aroused his own desire to make one of the party.  The fellow evidently disliked him instinctively, and would exert every influence possible to discredit him in the eyes of Natalie.  The suggestion even came that this sudden call to charity might prove only an effort on Coolidge’s part to get the girl alone where she could be plainly talked to.  The man was not pleased with this new proposal, that was evident enough; but the niece unquestionably desired him to accept the invitation.  Not only her lips, but equally her eyes, pressed the matter, and West experienced no hesitancy in saying yes.

“Why, of course I will go,” he returned heartily, “and I will be ready whenever you are.”

“About half an hour then.”

He retired to the room upstairs, partly for the purpose of exchanging his coat, but also half tempted to make a hasty examination of the valise which Coolidge had thoughtlessly left overnight in the closet.  The conception had already taken strong hold on his mind that his visitor of the evening before had been the mysterious impersonator of Natalie Coolidge; and that she had come there with some deliberate purpose—­no-doubt a secret conference with Percival.  If her resemblance to the mistress of the house was as remarkable as he had been led to believe, her entrance to the place would be comparatively easy of accomplishment, and the danger of discovery correspondingly small.  It never occurred to him to question Natalie’s story.  To be sure there were details he found it difficult to fully accept as true, but the girl certainly believed all she had told him.  She denied earnestly having been the one invading his room, and he believed her implicitly; yet the person who had visited him was so closely her image as to make it still seem almost an impossibility that she could be a separate individual.  Nothing less than Natalie’s own word would have brought conviction.  And this person had supposed she was visiting the apartment occupied by Percival Coolidge.  This was the only satisfactory explanation of her presence there; whether she came that night for the first time, or as a supplement to other similar visits, it was unquestionably Coolidge whom she sought.