They did not come to the front, but in a slouching, furtive way went past the front of the house and round to the back, where the next minute there was a low tapping made by the knob of a stick on a door, and soon after a buzzing murmur of voices arose. Aunt Marguerite had nothing whatever to do, and the murmur interested her to the extent of making her rise, go across her room, and through a door at the back into her bed-chamber, where an open lattice window had a chair beneath, and the said window being just over the back entrance from whence the murmur came, Aunt Marguerite had nothing to do but go and sit down there unseen, and hear every word that was said. "Yes," said the familiar voice of brown-faced, black-haired Liza; "they're beautiful, but I haven't got the money." "That there red ribbon 'd just soot you, my lass," said a deep voice, so fuzzy that it must have come from under a woollen jacket. "Just look at that there hankychy, too," said another deep voice. "Did you ever see a better match?" "Never," said the other deep voice emphatically. "Yes, they're very lovely, but I ain't got the money. I let mother have all I had this week." "Never mind the gashly money, my lass," said the first deep-voiced man huskily, "ain'tcher got nothing you can sell?" Then arose a good deal of murmuring whisper, and Aunt Marguerite's lips became like a pale pink line drawn across the lower part of her face, and both her eyes were closely shut. "Well, you wait," was the concluding sentence of the whispered trio, and then the door was heard to shut. The click of a latch rose to where Aunt Marguerite sat, and then there was a trio once again--a whispered trio--ending with a little rustling, and the sound of heavy steps. Then the door closed, and Liza, daughter of Poll Perrow, the fish-woman, who carried a heavy maund by the help of a strap across her forehead, hurried up to her bedroom, and threw herself upon her knees as she spread two or three yards of brilliant red ribbon on the bed, and tastefully placed beside the ribbon an orange silk kerchief, whose united colours made her dark eyes sparkle with delight. The quick ringing of a bell put an end to the colour-worship, and Liza, with a hasty ejaculation, opened her box, thrust in her new treasures, dropped the lid, and locked it again before hurrying down to the dining-room, where she found her young mistress, her master, and Madelaine Van Heldre. "There was some change on the chimney-piece, Liza," said Louise. "Did you see it?" "No, miss." "It is very strange. You are quite sure you did not take it, papa?" "Quite, my clear." "That will do, Liza." The girl went out, looking scared. "It is very strange," said Vine. "Yes, clear; and it is a great trouble to me. This is the third time money has been missing lately. I don't like to suspect people, but one seems to be forced." "But surely, Louie, dear, that poor girl would not take it."