"And yet the bracelet vanished," interposed Colonel Hope. "They must have been confoundedly deep, whoever did it; but thieves are said to possess sleight of hand." "They are clever enough, some of them," observed the officer. "Rascally villains! I should like to know how they accomplished this." "So should I," significantly returned the officer. "At present it appears to me incomprehensible." There was a pause; the officer seemed to muse; and Alice, happening to look up, saw his eyes stealthily studying her face. It did not tend to reassure her. "Your servants are trustworthy; they have lived with you some time?" resumed Mr. Pullet, not apparently attaching much importance to what the answer might be. "Were they all escaped convicts, I don't see that it would throw light on this," retorted Colonel Hope. "If they came into the room to steal the bracelet, Miss Dalrymple must have seen them." "From the time you put out the bracelets, to that of the ladies coming up from dinner, how long was it?" inquired the officer of Alice. "I scarcely know," panted she. What with his close looks and his close questions, her breath was growing short. "I did not take particular notice of the lapse of time: I was not well yesterday evening." "Was it half-an-hour?" "Yes--I dare say--nearly so. "Miss Dalrymple," he continued in a brisk tone, "will you have any objection to take an oath before a magistrate--in private, you know--that no person whatever, except yourself, entered either of these rooms during that period?" Had she been requested to go before a magistrate to testify that she, herself, was the guilty person, it could scarcely have affected her more. Her cheeks grew white, her lips parted, and her eyes assumed a beseeching look of terror. Lady Sarah Hope hastily pushed a chair behind her, and drew her down upon it. "Really, Alice, you are very foolish to allow yourself to be excited about nothing," she remonstrated: "you would have fallen on the floor in another minute. What harm is there in taking an oath privately, when it is to further the ends of justice?" The officer's eyes were still keenly fixed on Alice Dalrymple's, and she cowered visibly beneath his gaze. He was puzzled by her evident terror. "Will you assure me, on your sacred word, that no person did enter the room?" he repeated in a low, firm tone; which somehow carried to her the impression that he believed her to be trifling with them. She looked at him; gasped, and looked again; and then she raised her handkerchief in her hand and wiped her ashy face. "I think some one did come in," whispered the officer in her ear; "try and recollect who it was." And Alice fell back in hysterics, and was taken from the room. "Miss Dalrymple has been an invalid for years; she is not strong, like other people," remarked Lady Sarah. "I felt sure we should have a scene of some kind, and that is why I wished the investigation not to be gone into hurriedly."