That is the history of my connection with the case. From that night I’ve never seen or heard of the stones, nor have I seen Major or Mrs. Thatcher. The diamonds entered our possession and departed from them exactly as I have told, and tho my statement may call for great credulity on the part of my readers, all I can say is that I am willing to vouch for the truth of every word of it. Statement of Gladys, Marchioness of Castlecourt. Statement of Gladys, Marchioness of Castlecourt. I am sure if any one was ever punished for their misdeeds it was I. I suppose I ought to say sins, but it is such an unpleasant word! I can not imagine myself committing sins, and yet that is just what I seem to have done. I couldn’t have been more astonished if some one had told me I was going to commit a murder. One thing I have learned--you do not know what you may do till you have been tried and tempted. And then you do wrong before you realize it, and all of a sudden it comes upon you that you are a criminal quite unexpectedly, and no one is more surprised than you. I certainly know I was the most surprised person in London when I realized that I-- But there, I am wandering all about, and I want to tell my story simply and shortly. Everybody knows that when I married Lord Castlecourt I was poor. What everybody does not know is that I was a natural spend-thrift. Extravagance was in my blood, as drinking or the love of cards is in the blood of some men. I had never had any money at all. I used to wear the same gloves for years, and always made my own frocks--not badly, either. I’ve made gowns that Lady Bundy said-- But that has nothing to do with it; I’m getting away from the point. As I said before, I was poor. I didn’t know how extravagant I was till I married and Lord Castlecourt gave me six hundred pounds a year to dress on. It was a fortune to me. I’d never thought one woman could have so much. The first two years of our married life I did not run over it, because we lived most of the time in the country, and I was unused to it, and spent it slowly and carefully. I was still unaccustomed to it when, after my second boy was born, Herbert brought me to town for my first season since our marriage. Then I began to spend money, quantities of it, for it seemed to me that six hundred pounds a year was absolutely inexhaustible. When I saw anything pretty in a shop I bought it, and I generally forgot to ask the price. The shop people were always kind and agreeable, and seemed to have forgotten about it as completely as I. After I had bought one thing they would urge me to look at something else, which was put away in a drawer or laid out in a cardboard box, and if I liked it I bought that too. If I ever paused to think that I was buying a great deal, I contented myself with the assurance that I had six hundred pounds a year, which was so much I would never get to the end of it.