“Have you been accepting the attentions of any other young man?”

“No, sir,” smiled Violet.  “That is not my style.”

“I am glad to hear you say so, yet I really might have known it,” laughed Nick.

“Thank you, Detective Carter,” bowed the girl, blushing warmly.  Then she hastened to add:  “Still, I am not a prude, sir—­don’t think I mean that.  In my profession one is obliged to be on friendly terms with a great many persons, both men and women.  At the theater, for instance, I meet many men and form many acquaintances, both agreeable and the reverse.”

“And sometimes have the attentions of men fairly forced upon you, I imagine?” said Nick, inquiringly, with a brighter gleam lighting his earnest eyes.

“Yes, sir; sometimes,” Violet demurely admitted.

Nick drew forward in his chair, and Chick saw that he had caught up the thread at that moment suggested to himself.

“Miss Page,” said Nick, more impressively, “I now want you to answer me without the slightest reserve.”

“I will, sir,” bowed Violet, with a startled look.

“Has any man of the late vaudeville company, or one connected with the theater, endeavored to force his love upon you?”

“No, sir; not one.”

“Or any visitor admitted to the stage?”

“Well—­yes, sir,” faltered Violet, quite timidly.  “Since you press me thus gravely, I must admit that I have been obliged to repel the affection of a certain man.  Yet, please don’t infer, sir, that he has ever been ungentlemanly.  He even has done me the honor, if one can so term an undesired proposal, to protest that he wished to make me his wife.”

“What is that man’s name?” demanded Nick, quite bluntly.

Yet both Nick and Chick already anticipated it.

“Must I tell you his name, sir?” faltered Violet.

“You may do so confidentially, Miss Page.”

“His name, sir, is Rufus Venner.”

“One more question, Miss Page,” cried Nick, quickly, “Was there any member of the vaudeville company who knew of Venner’s proposal?”

“I don’t think so, sir.  At least I know of none.”

Nick glanced at Chick and dryly remarked: 

“All under the surface, Chick.”

“Not a doubt of it, Nick.”

Violet looked surprised and alarmed at this, and hastened to ask: 

“Oh, Mr. Carter, is there something of which I am ignorant?  Or have I done wrong in any way?”

Nick turned to her and gravely answered: 

“No, Miss Page, you have done nothing wrong—­far from it!  But there is considerable of which you are ignorant.”

“Oh, sir, what do you mean?”

“Wait just one moment, and I then may be able to tell you,” said Nick, rising.  “I have something here that I wish to show you.”

He went to his library desk and took from a drawer the silver jewel casket which he had brought from Central Park.