He reached out his hand and took it from her and examined the diamond pendant. “And that is your necklace,” he said. “Well, that is a remarkable coincidence.” “Where did you get it?” she asked. He did not make any reply. He was looking at her with a stony stare in which there was neither expression nor encouragement for speculation. “Where did I get it?” he repeated calmly. “Who told you that I’d got it?” “I found it in your pocket,” she said breathlessly. “Oh, Gilbert, there is no use denying that you had it there or you knew it was there. Where did you get it?” Another pause, then came the answer-- “I found it.” It was lame and unconvincing, and he knew it. She repeated the question. “I am not prepared to tell you,” he said calmly. “You think I stole it, I suppose? You probably imagine that I am a burglar?” He smiled, but the lips that curved in laughter were hard. “I can see that in your eyes,” he went on. “You explain my absence from home, my retirement from the Foreign Office, by the fact that I have taken up a more lucrative profession.” He laughed aloud. “Well, I have,” he said. “It is not exactly burglary. I assure you,” he went on with mock solemnity, “that I have never burgled a safe in my life. I give you my word of honour that I have never stolen a single article of any----” He stopped himself--he might say too much. But Edith grasped at the straw he offered her. “Oh, you do mean that, don’t you?” she said eagerly, and laid her two hands on his breast. “You really mean it? I know it is stupid of me, foolish and horribly disloyal--common of me, anything you like, to suspect you of so awful a thing, but it did seem--it did, didn’t it?” “It did,” he agreed gravely. “Won’t you tell me how it came into your possession?” she pleaded. “I tell you I found it--that is true. I had no intention----” He stopped again. “It was--I picked it up in the road, in a country lane.” “But weren’t you awfully surprised to find it, and didn’t you tell the police?” He shook his head. “No,” he said, “I was not surprised, and I did not tell the police. I intended restoring it, because, after all, jewels are of no value to me, are they?” “I don’t understand you, Gilbert.” She shook her head, a little bewildered. “Nothing is of any use except what belongs to you, is it?” “That depends,” he said calmly. “But in this particular case I assure you that I brought this home to-night with the intention of putting it into a small box and addressing it to the Chief Commissioner of Police. You may believe that or not. That is why I thought it so extraordinary when you were talking at dinner that your mother should have lost a necklace, and that I should have found one.” They stood looking at one another, he weighing the necklace on the palm of his hand, tossing it up and down mechanically.