Page:Anna Katharine Green - Leavenworth Case.djvu/158

148 want you to find out; first, what is the connection between these ladies and Mr. Clavering"

"There is a connection, then?"

"Undoubtedly. And secondly, what is the cause of the unfriendly feeling which evidently exists between the cousins."

I drew back and pondered the position offered me. A spy in a fair woman’s house! How could I reconcile it with my natural instincts as a gentleman?

"Cannot you find some one better adapted to learn these secrets for you?" I asked at length. "The part of a spy is anything but agreeable to my feelings, I assure you."

Mr. Gryce’s brows fell.

"I will assist Mr. Harwell in his efforts to arrange Mr. Leavenworth’s manuscript for the press," I said; "I will give Mr. Clavering an opportunity to form my acquaintance; and I will listen, if Miss Leavenworth chooses to make me her confidant in any way. But any hearkening at doors, surprises, unworthy feints or ungentlemanly subterfuges, I herewith disclaim as outside of my province; my task being to find out what I can in an open way, and yours to search into the nooks and corners of this wretched business."

"In other words, you are to play the hound, and I the mole; just so, I know what belongs to a gentleman."

"And now," said I, "what news of Hannah?"

He shook both hands high in the air. "None."

I cannot say I was greatly surprised, that evening, when, upon descending from an hour’s labor with Mr. Harwell, I encountered Miss Leavenworth standing at the foot of the stairs. There had been something in