"She has much to learn at La Scala, and is a newcomer. I believe she will win them over as she has everyone she met here."

"Everyone?"

"Do you consider yourself an exception?"

"I'll admit her parting gesture caught me off-guard, but then, gestures are stockin-trade with her."

"Mr. Norton, I have sat in the Royal Courts of Justice to watch you argue a case. You are very grand in your robes and powdered wig-but you have a propensity for the grand gesture that is at least the equal of Irene's."

"Do you think so?" He leaned forward to stare at me. "Quite an unmercifully astute observer, aren't you, Miss Huxleigh?"

"Like most people, I am myopic about myself," I said modestly.

"And about her?"

"Oh, I may be partial, but never blind, Mr. Norton, never blind."

"I wonder," was all he would answer on that occasion.

Yet his queries cropped up again, and again. I began to take Irene's letters to chambers and read him the best bits. It soon became a weekly ritual to share a quiet morning tea over a fat letter from Irene.

"Do you think I shall ever solve the riddle of the cursed chest, Miss Huxleigh?" he would often ask with his hands clasped behind his neck, as he leaned back in his chair staring out the window at a lacework of bare branches.

Hearing of Irene always reminded him of the puzzling inheritance from his late father-and of the Zone of Diamonds.

"I don't know, Mr. Norton. Have you made any progress?"

He glanced at me sharply with those pale lucid eyes that missed so little. "I have been musing upon it, Miss Huxleigh."

He didn't trust me, of course, not completely. With matters of the chamber, utterly; with the link between his family, the missing jewels and Irene, not at all.

Thus I came in one spring morning chirping like a thrush to find G.o.dfrey Norton frowning like a hungry vulture.

"Your heroine has not lost her taste for diamonds, after all."

He slapped the morning's edition of the Daily Telegraph atop a fat tower of doc.u.ments tied with red tape. I lifted the paper, which had been folded to display the article that had caught his eye. A sketch of Irene in evening dress-beautifully evoked by some anonymous fine Italian hand-topped the column.

Below it a headline trumpeted, "American Singer, Late of London, Subst.i.tutes for La Calvetari in Rossini's 'La Cenerentola' Draped in Fortune in Diamonds." A smaller headline noted that "Three Pinkerton Detectives Guard Diva."

"Oh, this is wonderful!" I sat to read the article. "What an opportunity! Listen to what they say: 'The dark tones of Miss Adler's voice, which verge on the contralto, add a dimension and poignancy to the mezzo-soprano role of Cinderella seldom heard on operatic stages'-"

I read on, hungry for information, while G.o.dfrey Norton pointedly rattled the tea things. I ignored my dereliction of duty in the face of such delicious news. He finally brought me a cup and sat upon the desk's burdened edge to coddle his own in his hands while I blurted on.

"Apparently the opera is an Italian version of Cinderella, and Irene has gone from the ashes of the understudy to diamonds at the ball in true fairy tale fashion. Only listen: 'Miss Adler's brilliant coloratura singing enamors a new generation with the seductive charms of Rossini's oft-forgotten masterwork. Even the spectacular diamonds that bedeck her in the ball sequence cannot outshine her vocal glitter, especially the fully faceted fire of Miss Adler's voice in the final, very difficult rondo, Nacqui all' affano (Born to Sorrow).' Oh, G.o.dfrey, she is a triumph!"

"She certainly seems to have got herself center stage," he remarked.

"Is that not exactly what she went to Italy to do?"

"It is obvious why she lost interest in the Zone of Diamonds and abandoned my father's chest." He sounded almost piqued. "How can they compete with an admirer able to"-he lifted the newspaper to read the headline through curled lips-"drape her in diamonds.'"

Mr. Norton rose and walked to the window, then went on much like a prosecuting attorney with a hostile witness.

"I know, Miss Huxleigh, that you have made a heroine of your erstwhile chambermate. I am loath to invoke the counsel of your late father, but isn't it possible that you worship at feet of clay? Most actresses and opera singers affect real jewels on the stage to prove the regard of the many admirers who vie for their rather public favors. Evidently the redoubtable Irene Adler has succeeded once again in a less honorable arena. She has sold herself to evoke one day's wonder in the public press. The jewels are obviously the gift of a wealthy admirer who has obtained his own... gifts in return.".

I could see only the edge of Mr. Norton's face as he stared out the window. His hands, clasped behind his back, worked with the same confidently impatient energy they often betrayed. I masked my indignation in a velvet-gloved counterattack that Irene would have delivered fairly purring. I merely managed to sound prim.

"These diamonds are more than ordinary baubles. They must be very costly-priceless," I breathed, quoting from the article: "... two thousand linked together lace-like from right shoulder to left hip and anch.o.r.ed at the decolletage by a magnificent diamond rose-"

"A fortune, obviously," he said curtly. "And you stomach the way it was obtained?"

"From an admirer," I admitted, as though reluctant.

"Wealthy admirers are like vultures: where there is one, others gather."

"No doubt you are more worldly than I, Mr. Norton. Yet the result has been a great piece of good fortune for Irene. No operatic debut has received such wide notice as this, I gather. And the reviews are excellent."

"Reviews!" He turned burning eyes on me, much as if I stood in the witness box. I should have been quite cowed, had I not known him in other moods, and had I not a courtroom surprise of my own to spring in Irene's behalf. "You consider reviews in circ.u.mstances like this? You shock me, Miss Huxleigh."

I smiled. I had never shocked anyone before. It was a rather pleasant feeling, as Irene once said. "I see nothing wrong in what Irene has done. It was most clever of her-in fact, quite worthy of a RT. Barnum, to draw attention to her operatic debut this way. And she with so few resources-"

"Save for wealthy admirers!"

"Well... yes."

G.o.dfrey Norton stood astounded at my complacent acceptance of the situation. I admired his air of fiery scorn, his pale eyes bright as lightning. He looked more handsome than ever when he was angry.

"You know the ident.i.ty of the diamonds' bestower!" he said abruptly, changing tactics. "You aren't surprised by this at all."

I bowed my head. "You have found me out, Mr. Norton. Irene's wealthy admirer is Mr. Charles Tiffany, the American jeweler."

"What?!" He seemed even more outraged to have his suspicions confirmed.

I felt like a cat toying with a rather cooperative mouse. It was most exhilarating.

Mr. Norton continued speaking, more quietly but in great disdain. "How can a woman of strong personal standards like yourself accept such an.... adventuress as a friend?"

I answered in even lower tones. "How can a man whose own mother was so misjudged by the world turn the same wrong estimation on another woman?"

We regarded each other for some time, the anger and disbelief gradually fading from his face, a smile softening mine.

G.o.dfrey Norton sat down suddenly. "I have taken events at face value; a grave mistake for one in my profession. Enlighten me, please, Miss Huxleigh."

I turned the paper to face me again. It was a wonderful sketch. Irene looked lovelier than Lillie Langtry. The swag of diamonds glittering on her bosom only underlined her own beauty. Yet this figure seemed beyond the two of us in this room, too-beyond the Inner Temple and London and the time we had each spent with her. Irene Adler looked as remote as Venus when it rises blue-white in the Eastern evening.

I smoothed the paper. "Appearances, Mr. Norton. You should know a thing or two of them. Irene is poor, as I am, as your mother was when she left your father's house with her three sons to rear. Irene cannot compete with divas who win their laurels in emeralds and rubies and sapphires-"

"Of course she can! She is as beautiful as any of them. I have never quibbled about that. She was born for the world's admiration."

"But she will not vie for it. Not in that way."

His eyes narrowed skeptically.

"Not in that way," I repeated firmly. "So, she finds another way. I am certain that she persuaded Mr. Tiffany to loan her this 'corsage' of diamonds, which his jewelers have been working on for some years. He does admire her-she investigated the Zone of Diamonds for him years ago-and he is wealthy. He's also canny enough to know that a debut attended by Pinkertons and publicity will whet the world's appet.i.te for a priceless set of jewels like this. The diamonds are back in the Tiffany vaults by now, Mr. Norton. Irene has had the satisfaction of making her debut as a Cinderella on an equal footing, so to speak, with the other singers who will let themselves be bought, and who is hurt?"

"The world will think ill of her," he said softly. I saw his light eyes darken at the ever-rankling thought of his maligned mother.

"Irene does not care what anyone thinks of her but herself."

"A man may live by such a Bohemian code, but that is impossible for a woman."

"It would be for myself, but not for Irene. She is not an ordinary woman. You must not a.s.sume that of her, Mr. Norton, or you will be often wrong."

"My mother suffered greatly," he said suddenly. "Oh, she put a good public face on it-and a serene private one, too, before us boys. But I sensed it, her humiliation at being forced to leave that man; the worse humiliation of the court action, when all she had earned on her own became his..."

"I am sorry. There is nothing worse than watching one we love subjected to injustice, pinned into a false position in front of the whole world. That is why I cannot allow you to think ill of Irene; at least, not on this issue."

"Others will, who have no access to an advocate so eloquent as you, Miss Huxleigh."

I had the grace to blush at his praise, but would not be distracted from the main point. "In this case, I care not about others. I work for you, Mr. Norton. I cannot continue to do so if you believe that Irene is other than she is. I cannot defend her every act, but she would never sell herself, no matter the appearances."

"I hope your faith is never tried," he said, rising. "The truer the believer, the more bitter the disillusionment. Our tea has cooled; it was not well made, in any case. Perhaps you would like that, er, that article for a keepsake."

"Why, I am most grateful, unless you would wish to keep it to remind you of false conclusions...?" I extended it, but he waved it away.

"No, no. I have learned my lesson without needing an eternal reminder of it."

So I went home that evening and pasted the portrait of Irene into my diary. It took up most of the page and saved me writing about the dull day. I was not certain that I had convinced Mr. Norton, for he was a young man and sure in his prejudices, although a clever one. And he did not know the power of faith. Though I only knew Jasper Higginbottom for a short period, he never in that time behaved in a manner that disappointed me; I was sure that wherever he was-still serving the Church in Africa or called to a Higher Service-he had not failed me yet. In the present instance, a letter from Irene soon arrived that described events exactly as I had antic.i.p.ated them. I began to feel quite a competent detective, in my modest way.

Whether the incident elevated G.o.dfrey Norton's opinion of Irene, it certainly altered his att.i.tude toward myself. He began to consult me on the character of certain of his clients, recognizing that I was an impartial observer but not an insensitive one. He even began to ask me to "take notes," an invitation which invariably brought a smothered smile to my face.

The first such occasion was the oddest. An old woman garbed in the solid black of deep mourning surmounted by a Persian lamb pelisse equally as dark entered the chambers, some sort of clumsy green sack hanging at her side. It reminded me of my forlorn carpetbag. I summed her up at once: one of those half-mad old creatures who are convinced that the Irish Fenians are about to a.s.sa.s.sinate Queen Victoria or that the ghost of their great-uncle Bloodgood still haunts the family manor.

Such eccentric clients did not often cross our threshold unannounced; solicitors who knew that Mr. Norton rarely declined a case involving an elderly lady's affairs would post doc.u.ments on troubling cases to his attention or seek his advice in person.

"You're not a solicitor!" the old woman exclaimed, regarding me in my typewriting corner through spectacles as thick as quartz.

"Indeed not. Nor is Mr. Norton. He is a barrister. There is a significant difference."

"Oh, dear! I cannot cart myself to yet another doorway within this maze of bricks and pa.s.sages and running men. Can't someone simply tell me what to do?"

I smiled to imagine this fragile personage caught amongst-not a parliament of crows-but a wig of barristers flocking to the Royal Courts of Justice across Fleet Street.

"My dear lady," I suggested, "I suspect you require a solicitor, someone to handle a family rather than a court matter. He will consult a barrister for you if warranted-"

"What is it, Miss Huxleigh?" Mr. Norton peered out from the inner sanctum his financial stability had afforded.

"A lady, who is seeking a solicitor-"

"I hardly know what I seek, only that it is help I need," said she, settling onto a chair so firmly her layers of garments rustled in a henlike manner.

"Help?" Mr. Norton crossed the threshold to regard the canvas sack beside her. "Please step in and explain your difficulty."

I sighed, seeing that Mr. Norton's native sympathy had snared him once again.

"Miss Huxleigh, perhaps you could fetch some tea."

I sighed more loudly. Now that I had weaned Mr. Norton from the routine brews of Lipton's tea chain and acquainted him with the rarities of Twinings, I was loath to lavish them on every indigent caller, for such the old lady clearly was.

Two steaming cups were shortly before them. I prepared to withdraw, when Mr. Norton addressed me again.

"Perhaps you could bring back a cup of this delicious tea for yourself, Miss Huxleigh, and some foolscap so that you may note down what Mrs. Mutterworth has to say."

"Oh, why, there would be nothing to it," I replied, my tone implying quite the opposite.

"Cut the cackle," the old lady murmured in a rough sotto voce only I could hear.

"Not merely muddled but rude," I complained beneath my breath as I collected my tea, paper and pencils and returned to Mr. Norton's office.

"You are a widow, ma'am?" Mr. Norton was inquiring.

"Widow!" she hooted. "I'm no Old Lady at Windsor. Never wed, not once. Not even twice."

"Well, then, Miss Mutterworth, what is your problem?"

"What is yours, young man, that you cannot see it plain before your eye? If I must have a solicitor, I should like one who can see and hear. You seem to have difficulties in both areas."

"Then please point out the obvious, Miss Mutterworth," Mr. Norton suggested with more patience than I could have mustered, forbearing to remind her again that he was not a solicitor and that he was in no way obliged to hear her woes; indeed, it violated professional protocol to do so.

The old lady gestured to the awkward parcel huddled at her skirts. "This. This is all my only brother has left me. Can you imagine such a turn of events? Not dead two days and his solicitor"-she fairly spat the word in a croak of contempt-"sits me down and says I'm to have nothing for my old age but this!"

Mr. Norton and I stared at the green canvas heaped on the floor, as though covering a beehive.

"Solicitor!" the beldame mumbled under her breath in an uncivil croak. "Solicitor!"

"Mr. Norton is a barrister," I reiterated in my employer's defense. The distinction meant nothing to Miss Mutterworth.

"The house will have to be sold," she went on. "I've not a penny now to keep it with, not with Cavendish gone. I shall have to sleep in the lanes... with this for company."

"What is... that?" Mr. Norton inquired delicately, not looking as if he cared to know.

"Nasty, foul thing!" The old lady shuddered until the jet beads on her bonnet rim chattered. Her gloved hand lifted the canvas at arm's length, like an oversize, tainted teapot cosy.

"Cut the cackle!" a voice screeched at us. "Cut the cackle!"

Behind the stained bra.s.s tines of a cage a lurid green parrot shuffled its clawed feet along a wooden perch.

"Quite a ferociously articulate bird," Mr. Norton said.