“If the safe has been opened you will probably find one box of diamonds gone,—the pin and ear-rings. They were to be mine on my wedding day. It was no theft to take them and I had Mark bring them with him. I do not care for the pin and shall leave it for you with Charlotte, who is dazed with what has happened, but says Mr. Hilton is the handsomest man she ever saw. I think so, too. When we are settled you can send my clothes which are in Ridgefield to me, if you choose. If not, all right. I am sorry I was obliged to tell you so many fibs. I had to do something, and I did have a great deal of headache, and I have been to see the doctor. Tell Mr. and Mrs. Taylor I shall never forget their kindness, and sometime I may visit them again when they have forgotten how bad I was to Mr. Mason. “I must go now and help Charlotte with my trunks. Good-bye, mother. You said I’d take up with a crooked stick; but I haven’t. Mark is straight as an arrow, and I am very happy. “Your naughty, but loving daughter, “HELEN TRACY HILTON.” CHAPTER XXII. WHAT FOLLOWED. Mrs. Tracy went into violent hysterics, which brought Celine and Mrs. Taylor and Sarah, and at last Mr. Taylor and Jeff, to her room, her sobs were so loud, amounting almost to screams. “What has happened? Is mademoiselle dead?” Celine asked, and her mistress replied, “Worse than dead! She is married to Mark Hilton! Going to New York was a trick to deceive us. And your precious clerk, whom you trusted so implicitly, has taken my diamonds. Open the safe.” The last part of the remark was addressed to Mrs. Taylor, who hurried to the office, followed by the entire party. “Well, I’ll be dumbed if I thought that of Mark,” he gasped. “There must be some hereditary in him after all, and I’d of swore there wasn’t. Eloped! Run away, did you say, and took them diamonds with him? I’ll be dumbed! Yes, marm, I will.” He could scarcely stand as he began fumbling at the safe, trying to unlock it, but it baffled all his efforts. “I ain’t used to the pesky thing. Mark always attended to it, and I’ll be dumbed if I can budge it.” The sweat was pouring off his face as he got up from his knees and looked helplessly round. “Let me try. You know I opened it once,” Jeff said. No one objected, and the door was soon open, Uncle Zach and Jeff bumping their heads together to look in. “Jerusalem crickets! They are gone!” Jeff said. “So they be. That is,—one of the boxes; here’s t’other,” Uncle Zach rejoined in a choking voice, as he took out the box which contained the cross. “I feel like a thief myself. Yes, marm, I do. Can they arrest me as an——I dunno what you call it,—knowin’ to it is what it means? Where’s Dot? Seems ’sif the bottom had fell out; Mark gone off and got married and took the diamonds, too!”