Then I turned my attention to the second case—that of the young Countess of B. There seemed less room for doubt in this instance. The fashionable wedding of the autumn had been that of the Earl of B. with Miss Blank. There had been a churchful of people at St George’s, Hanover Square, and a host of guests at the breakfast at the _Unique Hotel_. On the morning of the wedding, the earl had presented his bride with a magnificent tiara of diamonds. As the ‘happy pair’ were to start almost immediately for the continent, these diamonds, inclosed in a case, were hastily packed in a travelling bag, which the bride’s travelling maid was never to let out of her sight. On arriving at Paris, the bag was apparently intact; but on opening the jewel-case, the tiara was amissing. Clearly, it must have been cleverly extracted from the case while lying in the bride’s dressing-room, the empty case then being placed in the bag. Who had stolen the countess’s diamonds? The maid, the bride’s mother, and a younger brother had alone, as far as it was known, entered the room where the jewels were lying. I don’t mind saying I had some difficulty in believing that a _bonâ fide_ robbery had been committed. You may not believe it, but I am convinced that many a startling robbery of jewels would be explained, if we knew of all the private debts incurred by ladies of fashion, and of the sacrifices sometimes made by them to screen from disgrace themselves or some deeply involved connection. Meanwhile, I made inquiries concerning robbery number three. This was at Colonel C.’s. There the only thing missed was a very valuable bracelet. There had been a dance at the house. During the evening, Mrs C. had slipped and sprained her ankle so severely that a doctor had to be summoned, and the party was somewhat prematurely brought to a close. Mrs C. distinctly remembered wearing the bracelet; but whether she had it on at the moment of falling, she could not remember. There had been naturally some confusion in the ballroom, and the lady had been carried to her own room. It was not for some hours that the loss of the bracelet was noticed. Then a search was made, but altogether without success. In the first and third of these cases, suspicion seemed to point at once to some member of the household; but all my inquiries failed to find any trace of the missing property. The servants all willingly consented, nay, even offered, to have their boxes searched, and for some weeks I confessed myself baffled. The missing property had disappeared as completely as though it had never existed.