“He told Mr. Litterny that he had just made a lucky hit in stocks, and ‘turned over a bunch of money,’ as he put it, and that he wanted to make his wife a present.  ‘Now—­this afternoon—­this minute,’ he said, which was just like Burr Claflin, who is an impetuous old chap.  ’I want to give her a diamond brooch, and I want her to wear it out to dinner to-night,’ he said.  ’Can’t you send two or three corkers up to the house for me?’ That surprised Mr. Litterny and he hesitated, but finally said that he would do it.  It was against the rules of the house, but as it was for Mr. Claflin he would do it.  They had a little talk about the details, and Claflin arranged to call up his wife and tell her that the jewels would be there at four-thirty, so that she could look out for them personally.  All that was the Litterny end of the affair.  Simple enough, wasn’t it?”

Katherine’s eyes were so intent, so brilliant, that Norman North went on with a pleased sense that he told the tale well: 

“Now begins the Claflin experience.  At half past four a clerk from Litterny’s left a package at the Claflin house in Cleveland Avenue, which was at once taken, as the man desired, to Mrs. Claflin.  She opened it and found three very handsome diamond brooches, which astonished her extremely, as she knew nothing about them.  However, it was not unusual for Claflin to give her jewelry, and he is, as I said, an impulsive man, so that unexpected presents had come once or twice before; and altogether, being much taken with the stones, she concluded simply that she would understand when her husband came home to dinner.

“However, her hopes were dashed, for twenty minutes later, barely long enough for the clerk to have got back to the shop, she was called to the telephone by a message, said to be from Litterny’s, and a most polite and apologetic person explained over the line that a mistake had been made; that the diamonds had been addressed and sent to her by an error of the shipping-clerk; that they were not intended for Mrs. Burr Claflin, but for Mrs. Bird Catlin, and that the change in name had been discovered on the messenger’s return.  Would Mrs. Claflin pardon the trouble caused, and would she be good enough to see that the package was given to their man, who would call for it in fifteen minutes?  Now the Catlins, as you must know, are richer people even than the Claflins, so that the thing was absolutely plausible.  Mrs. Claflin tied up the jewels herself, and entrusted them to her own maid, who has been with her for years, and this woman answered the door and gave the parcel into the hands of a man who said that he was sent from Litterny’s for it.  All that the maid could say of him was that he was ’a pretty young man, with a speech like a gentleman.’  And that was the last that has been seen of the diamond brooches.  Wasn’t it simple?  Didn’t I tell you that this affair was an artistic one?” North demanded.

Katherine Newbold drew a deep breath, and the story-teller, watching her face, saw that she was stirred with an emotion which he put down, with a slight surprise, to interest in his narrative.