Rachel Treherne leaned forward.

“I don’t think I should have come, Miss Silver. I wrote to you, but I think I have only come to apologize and to say-”

“Second thoughts are not always best,” said Miss Silver primly. “You are very nervous. You wrote to me because you were alarmed and you felt that you must speak to someone about what was alarming you. This gave you some momentary relief, and you began to think you had been foolish-”

“How do you know?” cried Rachel Treherne.

Miss Maud Silver nodded.

“It is my business to know things. And it is true, is it not? May I ask who recommended me to you?”

“No one.” Miss Treherne leaned back again. “Hilary Cunningham -she-the Cunninghams are connections of an old friend of mine. I met them there, and Hilary was talking about you-oh, months ago. And then when I felt I couldn’t bear it any longer I remembered your name and looked you up in the London directory. But, Miss Silver, I don’t want anyone to know-”

Miss Silver nodded again.

“Naturally, Miss Treherne. All my work is extremely confidential. As Lord Tennyson so beautifully puts it, ‘Oh, trust me all in all or not at all.’ I very frequently quote those lines to my clients. A great poet, now sadly neglected. And really very practical, because it is no use expecting me to help you if you will not tell me how I can do so.”

“No one can help me,” said Rachel Treherne.

Miss Silver’s needles clicked briskly.

“That sounds very foolish to me,” she said. “And-” she coughed slightly-“just a little impious too. No one will help you if you will not allow yourself to be helped. Now suppose you tell me just what is worrying you, and we will see what can be done about it.”

Rachel Treherne was irresistibly reminded of her schoolroom days. Miss Barker of estimable memory had displayed just such cheerful efficiency as this when confronted by the intricacies of Nathan der Weise or the inaccuracies of a muddled problem in arithmetic. Something in her responded to the click of the needles. She looked across the table with her dark eyes wide and said, “I think someone is trying to kill me.”