“I hadn’t heard that.”

“Well, it’s true.  He was well off when he married.  That’s the reason he got such a pretty wife, I hear.  Her folks were ambitious for her.  Well, she did shine for a while, for the Homestead was not an ordinary hotel.  It was more of a Colchester institution.  But it’s fast becoming something else now.

“Larch is being pressed for cash, and that may be one reason why he’s so thick with Harry King.  King’s got cash, if it can only be gotten at.  I overheard Larch sounding him as to the chances of raising a big sum.”

“And what did King say?”

“He agreed to try to get it for Larch.  That’s all I gathered then.  But I heard them talking of something else.”

“What?”

“Larch dropped a hint that he and his wife might be reconciled.”

“The deuce you say!”

“That’s right, Colonel.  I heard him telling King about it.  Larch is going to pay his wife a visit—­going to call on her at her father’s place in Pompey.  And he’s going to take her out a present.  I believe that’s the usual thing after a quarrel.”

“Possibly,” admitted the colonel.  “Oh, I wish I’d never mixed up in this!  I’m sorry for young Darcy, and I believe—­ Oh, well, what’s the use of talking now!  I’m in it and I must see it through.  So Larch is going to visit his wife?”

“Yes.  He’s either sent her a present or is going to.  I couldn’t quite catch which.”

“What sort of present, Jack?”

“A diamond cross.”

“What?” and the colonel had suddenly to modulate his voice or he would have attracted more attention that he cared to.  “A diamond cross?  Are you sure about that, Young?”

“Sure!  Why not?  I don’t see anything queer there.  He might buy her a diamond cross as a sort of forgiveness gift.  Same idea Harry King had you know, but a little higher class, that’s all.

“You know, Colonel, these things are about alike.  The man on Water Street gets drunk and brings his wife home a quart of oysters as a peace offering.  The man on the boulevard does the same thing and patches up the break with a pearl pendant.  It’s all the same, only different.”

“Yes, I suppose so.  I didn’t know you were a philosopher, Jack.”

“I’m not.  It’s just common sense.”

“But a diamond cross!  And if Larch is losing money—­”

“Oh, well, he may have held out some, or maybe the diamond cross isn’t so elaborate.  You know they take a lot of little diamonds now, set ’em in a cluster and make ’em look as good as a solitaire.  Anyhow Larch has been boasting to King that there’s to be a diamond cross present.  And there’s another angle to it.”

“What’s that, Jack?”

“Well, there’s been some talk between Larch and King about some big diamonds that have been sold of late.  I couldn’t catch whether King had sold them or Larch.  Anyhow they brought quite a sum of money.  Maybe they were stolen from the jewelry stock.”