"Your _profession_!"

"Hasn't a notion of it."

"What, with my sister's coat on her back, and the Innes' bag in her
hand"?"

"No!" McVay drew a step nearer. "You see I told her that I had found a
second-hand store where I could get things for nothing." He chuckled,
and Geoffrey withdrew with a look of repulsion that evidently
disappointed the other.

"That was a good idea, wasn't it?" he asked with a faint appeal in his
voice. "She thought it was likely, anyhow."

"She must be very gullable," said Geoffrey brutally.

"Or else," said McVay with a conscious smile, "I must be a pretty good
dissembler."

At this acute instance of fatuity Geoffrey, if he had followed his
impulse, would have flung McVay back in the closet and locked the door.
Instead, he said:

"Come down stairs. I want to look up something to eat."

"Thank you," said the burglar, "it would be a good idea."

"You need not thank me," said Geoffrey. "I don't take you with me for