"I should think you _couldn't_!" exclaimed Anita, and her voice was distinctly accusing. This seemed to rouse Pauline, and she looked up haughtily at the speaker. "I don't wonder _you_ think so!" she cried. "But since you ask, Mr. Stone, I will do the best I can. My aunt was seated at her dressing-table, but not in her usual chair,--or indeed, as if she were in any way attending to her toilette,--but in an easy chair, more as if she were sitting there in contemplation." "Was she given to such indications of vanity?" asked Stone, in a gentle way. "Not at all. My aunt was not a beautiful woman, and she had no illusions about her personal appearance. I have never known her to look at herself in a mirror more than was necessary for her dressing. Her maid will tell you this." "Go on, please, Miss Stuart." "When I saw my aunt, she was sitting placidly, even smilingly,--and I did not, for a moment, imagine she was not alive. Then I noticed her large tortoise-shell comb was broken to bits, and I noticed, too, her rigid, staring face. The next few moments are a confused memory to me, but I know I touched her hand and felt it cold, then I called to Mr. Haviland and he came." "Tell me of your aunt's garb. I understand it was most unusual." "Only in the accessories. The gown she had on was a negligée of Oriental make and fabric, elaborate, but one of which she was fond and which she had worn several times. Round her shoulders was a scarf, one of those heavy Syrian ones, of net patterned with silver. Then, she had on quantities of jewelry. Not only her pearls, and a few pins, which she had worn during the evening, but she had added many brooches and bracelets and rings of great value." "She was wearing, let us say, a hundred thousand dollars' worth of jewelry?" "Far more than that. Her pearls alone are worth that amount. Her diamond sunburst is valued at fifty thousand dollars and her emerald brooch is equally valuable. My aunt believed in gems as an investment, and though she usually kept them in a safe deposit vault, she had recently taken them from there, and had them all in the house." "A strange proceeding?" "Very. I have never known such a thing to occur before unless for some especial social occasion." "And the paper snake, of which I have been told----" "That is the strangest part of all! My aunt was not only afraid of live snakes, but she had also a perfect horror of any picture or artificial representation of them. She could never, in her right mind, have placed that paper snake about her own neck, nor would she have allowed any one else to do it, without screaming out in horror. Yet, the doctors declare it must have been placed round her neck before death. Therefore, it is to me entirely unexplainable." "Is not that a bizarre clue that should make the case an easy one?" asked Anita, with an inquiring glance at Stone. "It may be so," he replied, with a thoughtful look at her. "Where could such a snake have come from?"