He put down the 'phone. I pulled the pearl studs out of my
pocket.

"You might as well take these, too," I said.

"So thoughtful of you, seeing that you'd be searched! But I'll
take 'em, anyway. You intended them for--Him? You didn't get
anything else?"

I shook my head as I lay there.

"Hum!" It was half a laugh, and half a sneer. I hated him for
it, as he sat leaning back on the back legs of his chair, his
thumbs in his arm-holes. I felt his eyes--those smart, keen eyes,
burning into my miserable head. I thought of the lawyer and the
deal he'd give poor Tom, and all at once--

You'd have sniffled yourself, Mag Monahan. There I was--caught.
The cop'd be after me in five minutes. With Tom jugged, and me in
stripes--it wasn't very jolly, and I lost my nerve.

"Ashamed--huh?" he said lightly.

I nodded. I was ashamed.

"Pity you didn't get ashamed before you broke in here."

"What the devil was there to be ashamed of?"

The sting in his voice had cured me. I never was a weeper. I sat