A little after midnight he arrived at the club-house, secured his suit-case and the hat-box, and took a cab to his home.  He left the vehicle at the corner, lest the sound of it waken his mother or sister.

He let himself silently into the house with his latch-key, and tiptoed up to his room.  The light was burning low.  He put the hat-box in the farthest corner of his closet, then he took out the rain-coat, and, slipping off his shoes, went softly down to the hall closet.

In utter darkness he felt around and finally hung the coat on a hook under another long cloak, then gently released the hanging loop and let the garment slip softly down in an inconspicuous heap on the floor.  He stole upstairs as guiltily as if he had been a naughty boy stealing sugar.  When he reached his room, he turned up his light, and, pulling out the hat-box, surveyed it thoughtfully.  This was a problem which he had not yet been able to solve.  How should he dispose of the hat so that it would be discovered in such a way as to cast no further suspicion upon the maid?  How would it do to place the hat in the hall-closet, back among the coats?  No, it might excite suspicion to find them together.  Could he put it in his own closet and profess to have found it there?  No, for that might lead to unpleasant questioning, and perhaps involve the servants again.  If he could only put it back where he had found it!  But Cornelia, of course, would know it had not been there in her room all this week.  It would be better to wait until the coast was clear and hide it in Cornelia’s closet, where it might have been put by mistake and forgotten.  It was going to be hard to explain, but that was the best plan he could evolve.

He took the hat out and held it on his hand, looking at it from different angles and trying to remember just how the girl had looked out at him from under its drooping plumes.  Then with a sigh he laid it carefully in its box again and went to bed.

The morning brought clearer thought, and when the summons to breakfast pealed through the hall he took the box boldly in his hand and descended to the dining-room, where he presented the hat to his astonished sister.

“I am afraid I am the criminal, Cornelia,” he said in his pleasantest manner.  “I’m sorry I can’t explain just how this thing got on my closet-shelf.  I must have put it there myself through some unaccountable mix-up.  It’s too bad I couldn’t have found it before and so saved you a lot of worry.  But you are one hat the richer for it, for I paid the bill yesterday.  Please accept it with my compliments.”

Cornelia exclaimed with delight over the recovered hat.

“But how in the world could it have got into your closet, Tryon?  It was impossible.  I left it my room, I know I did, for I spoke to Norah about it before I left.  How do you account for it?”

“Oh, I don’t attempt to account for it,” he said, with a gay wave of his hand.  “I’ve been so taken up with other things this past week, I may have done almost anything.  By the way, Mother, I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear that Judge Blackwell has made me a most generous offer of business relations, and that I have decided to accept it.”