“You have done for me,” she said, in the deep, vibrating tones of her rich contralto voice, “all that human intelligence could suggest.  You have examined the evidence and conducted the whole affair with a thoroughness which I never could have obtained elsewhere.  That your search has been unavailing is due, not to any fault of yours, but rather to the consummate skill of the assassin, who, I think, we may conclude, is no ordinary criminal.  I do not know much of the abilities of Messrs. Osborne and Allen, but I understand that M. Godin has the reputation of being the cleverest detective in America.  I cannot learn that he has made any progress whatsoever in the solution of this terrible mystery.  I do not feel, therefore, that you have any right to reproach yourself.  Such hope as I have that my father’s murderer may ever be brought to justice rests in your efforts; else I should feel bound to relieve you of a task, which, though self-imposed, is, none the less, onerous and ill-paid.  Do not consider me altogether selfish if I ask that you still continue the search, and that I—­that I still be held to my covenant.  I am aware that I can never fully repay the kindness I am asking of you, but—­”

Maitland did not wait for her to finish.  “Let us not speak of that,” he said.  “It is enough to know that you are still satisfied with my, thus far, unsuccessful efforts in your behalf.  There is nothing affords me keener pleasure than to struggle with and solve an intricate problem, whether it be in algebra, geometry, or the mathematics of crime; and then—­well, even if I succeed, I shall quit the work your debtor.”

He had spoken this last impulsively, and when he had finished he remained silent, as if surprised and a bit nettled at his own failure to control himself.  Gwen made no reply, not even raising her eyes; but I noticed that her fingers at once busied themselves with the entirely uncalled-for labour of readjusting the tidy upon the arm of her chair, and I thought that, if appearances were to be trusted, she was very happy and contented at the change she had made in the bit of lacework beneath her hands.  With singular good sense, with which she was always surprising me, Alice now introduced the subject of the Young People’s Club, and mentioned incidentally that Gwen was to have charge of the next meeting.  Before Gwen had time to inform Maitland that she intended to decline this honour, he congratulated her upon it, and rendered her withdrawal difficult by saying:  “I feel that I should thank you, Miss Darrow, for the faithful way in which you fulfil the spirit of your agreement to permit me to order your actions.  I know, if you consulted your own desires, you would probably decline the honour conferred upon you, and that in accepting it, you are influenced by the knowledge that you are pursuing just the course I most wish you to follow.  Verily, you make my office of tyrant over you a perfect sinecure.  I had expected you to chafe a little under restraint, but, instead, I find you voluntarily yielding to my unexpressed desires.”