"I can assure you that you labour under a mistake, as to its being there when I came up from dinner," answered Lady Sarah. "Why do you ask?" "Hughes has come to say it is not in the case. She is outside, waiting." "Outside, now? Let her come in. What's this about my bracelet, Hughes?" "_I_ don't know, my lady. The bracelet is not in its place, so I asked Miss Seaton for it. She thought your ladyship might have kept it out yesterday evening." "I neither touched it nor saw it," said Lady Sarah. "Then we have had thieves at work," spoke Hughes, decisively; who had been making up her mind to that as a fact. "It must be in the box, Hughes," said Alice. "I laid it out on the table in the back drawing-room; and it is impossible that thieves--as you phrase it--could have come there." "Oh yes, it is in the box, no doubt," said Lady Sarah, somewhat crossly, for she disliked to be troubled, especially in hot weather. "You have not searched properly, Hughes." "My lady," answered Hughes, "I can trust my hands and I can trust my eyes, and they have all four been into every hole and crevice of the box." Lady Frances Chenevix laid down the _Morning Post_, and advanced. "Is the bracelet really lost?" "It cannot be lost," returned Lady Sarah. "You are sure you put it out, Alice?" "I am quite sure of that. It was lying first in the case, and----" "Yes, it was," interrupted Hughes. "That is its place." "And was consequently the first that I took out," continued Alice. "I put it on the table; and the others in a semicircle, nearer to me. Why, as a proof that it lay there----" What was Alice going to add? Was she going to adduce as a proof that Gerard Hope had taken it up and made it a subject of conversation? Recollection came to her in time; she faltered and abruptly broke off. But a faint, horrible dread, to which she would not give a shape, came stealing over her; her face turned white, and she sank on a chair, trembling visibly. "Now look at Alice!" uttered Frances Chenevix. "She is going into one of her agitation fits." "Do not agitate yourself, Alice," cried Lady Sarah; "that will do no good. Besides, I feel sure the bracelet is all safe in the case: where else can it be? Fetch the case, Hughes, and I will look for it myself." Hughes whirled out of the room, inwardly resenting the doubt cast on her eyesight. "It is so strange," mused Alice, "that you did not see the bracelet when you came up from dinner." "It was certainly not there to see," returned Lady Sarah. "Perhaps you'll now look for yourself, my lady," cried Hughes, returning with the jewel-box in her hands. The box was well searched. The bracelet was not there. "This is very strange, Hughes," exclaimed Lady Sarah.