She turned and tried to distinguish his expression; but, if he had hoped to startle, he was disappointed. She said, quite possessed:
"Because I am convinced that the second time was the deliberate action of a man, and that the first was the impulse of a woman."
"That is simply my feeling. A woman would not calculate the chances of detection, would have kept the ring on her person, and would have restored it. What do you think?"
"Possibly," she said, her glance returning to the street.
"But you don't agree with me," he said, leaning a little forward.
"Miss Charters, will you allow me to ask you a question?"
"Don't you know that a woman took it the first time?"
She turned very slowly and looked at him steadily a moment.
"Do you know, Mr. Beecher, that this is a very strange question?" she said. "Exactly what are you implying? Do you, by any chance, suspect me?"
She said the last words gently, with a return of the first manner which had so held him. And again, without being able to resist, he felt the charm on his senses. He knew absolutely nothing about her. At times the most direct suspicions had entered his mind; never-the-less all at once he heard himself answering:
"I know nothing in the world about you, Miss Charters, but my instinct tells me that is absolutely impossible."
"Only I can not forget your agitation at certain moments."
"You are perfectly calm now, and you were perfectly calm at certain times tonight."
She turned suddenly in her seat and faced him, saying sharply:
"I ask you to do so," she said peremptorily.
"I think--in fact, I am convinced--that you suspect who took the ring in the first place."
The cab was grinding against the curb. She put out her hand hurriedly, as if the impulse were to jump from the carriage. But immediately she checked the movement, and turned, saying very simply and directly:
"Then, if you do, and trust me, never ask that question again--or make the slightest reference to it."
She held out her hand. He took it, but without an answer, opened the door, saw her to her vestibule, and returned silent and moody, turning over again and again in his mind the sudden contradiction in her character.
"I wonder if she repels or attracts me most," he said, tramping over the quiet pavements, which flung back the riotous thumping of his cane. But, as he went aimlessly along, he felt again creeping over him the suddenness of her charm and a certain unsatisfied restlessness to see her again, which came to him with the faint scent of the perfume that had clung to his coat.