Had some one discovered that she was in disguise, and informed Mrs. Varrick? She trembled violently from head to foot. Mrs. Varrick broke in upon her confused thoughts. "Pardon my somewhat abrupt summons, Miss Duncan," she said, motioning her to a chair, "but something has occurred which renders it imperative that I should speak collectively to every member of this household. "Most of you remember, no doubt, that I wore my diamond bracelet to the opera last night. When I returned home I unclasped it from my arm, myself, and laid it carefully away in my jewel-box. This morning it is missing. My maid and I made a careful examination of the room where I am in the habit of keeping my jewels. We found that the room had not been entered from the outside, that all the windows and doors were securely bolted on the inside. I am therefore forced to accept the theory that my room was visited by some one from the inside of the house." "Wasn't it amazing!" cried Jessie, turning to Miss Duncan. "A thief walking through the house in the dead of night, while we were all sleeping! I am sure I should have been frightened into hysterics had I known it." A cold, calm look from Mrs. Varrick's steel-gray eyes seemed to arrest the words on the girl's lips, and that strange, uncanny gaze sent a thrill creeping down to the very depths of Jessie Bain's soul. All in a flash, as Miss Duncan listened, she realized what was coming. "Let no one interrupt me unless I invite them to speak," said Mrs. Varrick, continuing: "I will go on to say that the butler informs me that he found no door or window open in any part of the house, when he opened up the place this morning. "Have you missed anything, Miss Duncan?" "No," said Gerelda, quietly. "And you, Miss Bain?" "No. I have nothing that any thief would care to take," returned the girl; "only this gold chain and this battered old locket which contains my dead mother's picture, and I always wear this about my neck day and night." Mrs. Varrick asked the same question of every one present--"if they had lost anything during the night"--and each one answered in a positive negative. "Then it seems that the thief was content with taking my diamond bracelet," she said, sharply. Suddenly the housekeeper, who had been in Mrs. Varrick's service since she had come there a bride, spoke out: "I am sure nobody would object, ma'am, if the trunks and boxes of every one in the house were to be examined." Mrs. Varrick turned to the housekeeper. "I should not like to say that I suspect any one," she answered. "I have sent for one of the most experienced detectives in the city, and am expecting him to arrive at any moment. In the meantime, I desire that you will all remain in this room." Miss Duncan had maintained throughout an attitude of polite indifference. Now she realized what that visit to Jessie Bain's room, in the dead of the night, meant.