"Don't you think there are good grounds for an investigation, sir?" testily asked Colonel Hope of the officer. "I must confess I do think so, colonel," was the reply. "Of course: you hear, my lady. The difficulty is, how can we obtain the first clue to the mystery?" "I do not suppose there will be an insuperable difficulty," observed Mr. Pullet. "I believe I have obtained one." "You are a clever fellow, then," cried the colonel, "if you have obtained it here. What is the clue?" "Will Lady Sarah allow me to mention it--whatever it may be--without taking offence?" continued the officer, looking at her ladyship. She bowed her head, wondering much. "What's the good of standing upon ceremony?" peevishly put in Colonel Hope. "Her ladyship will be as glad as we shall be to get back her bracelet; more glad, one would think. A clue to the thief! Who is it?" Mr. Pullet smiled. When men have been as long in the police force as he had, they give every word its due significance. "I did not say a clue to the thief, colonel: I said a clue to the mystery." "Where's the difference?" "Pardon me, it is perceptible. That the bracelet is gone is a palpable fact: but by whose hands it went is as yet a mystery." "What do you suspect?" "I suspect," returned the officer, lowering his voice, "that Miss Dalrymple knows how it went." There was a silence of surprise; on Lady Sarah's part, of indignation. "Is it possible that you suspect _her?_" demanded Colonel Hope. "No," said the officer, "I do not suspect herself: she appears not to be a suspicious person in any way: but I believe she knows who the delinquent is, and that fear, or some other motive, keeps her silent. Is she on familiar terms with any of the servants?" "But you cannot know what you are saying!" interrupted Lady Sarah. "Familiar with the servants! Miss Dalrymple is a gentlewoman; she has always moved in good society. Her family is little inferior to mine; and better--better than the colonel's," concluded her ladyship, determined to speak out. "Madam," said the officer, "you must be aware that in an investigation of this nature we are compelled to put questions which we do not expect to be answered in the affirmative. Colonel Hope will understand what I mean, when I say that we call them 'feelers.' I did not expect to hear that Miss Dalrymple had been on familiar terms with your servants (though it might have been); but that question, being disposed of, will lead me to another. I suspect that some one did enter the room and make free with the bracelet, and that Miss Dalrymple must have been cognizant of it. If a common thief, or an absolute stranger, she would have been the first to give the alarm: if not on too familiar terms with the servants, she would be as little likely to screen them. So we come to the question--whom could it have been?" "May I inquire why you suspect this of Miss Dalrymple?" coldly demanded Lady Sarah.