She opened the precious box and lifted out the bangle, which she supposed to be the real one. There was the blue stone, there was the clasp, and there was the rim of gold, but--Fanchon felt all the colour rushing madly up to her face, and then leaving it. The bangle was _not_ her bangle! Oh, yes--she had studied it once or twice; she had observed its elegance, its dainty finish. "This--this--" She looked wildly at her two sisters, who glanced at her in some wonder. "Where _did_ you get this?" said Nina, who felt that if she did not pretend now, all the rest of her life would be worthless to her. "It was given to me by Brenda--oh, let me put it away--some one will come--I am frightened!" "It's only an old shilling thing, isn't it?" said Josie. "Indeed not-- it is real, as real can be." "Then why didn't you show us the gold mark? there's always a gold mark on real things--at least so Mademoiselle says." "I can--oh dear, oh dear--of course I can! but--you must come to the light." The three girls approached the window. They turned the bangle round and round. Alas! that curious little mark which Joe Burbery had detected under the lamp-post was nowhere to be found on the false bangle. Fanchon burst into a flood of tears. "Some one has _stolen_ the real bangle!--whatever am I to do?" The two girls clustered round her. She cried a good deal; then carefully returned the bangle to its hidden place. "I don't know what is to be done!" she said. "It's the most awful thing that ever happened! But _my_ bangle that was eighteen carat gold--and there was the most lovely turquoise in it--is gone! Oh, what am I to do!" CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. A FORLORN HOPE. The Amberleys were really fond of each other. They were worldly little creatures, and had never been trained in high principles of any sort; but they clung together, as motherless, defenceless creatures will in their hour of peril. They had a queer feeling now that they were in some sort of danger, and the younger ones sympathised enormously with Fanchon. They did not of course dare to tell her what had happened on the previous night--how Nina had worn the bangle, the real eighteen carat gold bangle, the bangle with the turquoise of such size and elegance, of such an exquisite shade of colour, the bangle with that delicate tracery all over its gold rim. That bangle was so widely different from this, that there was no doubt whatever that the one had been substituted for the other. How had it been done? Mademoiselle? Oh, no, no. Nina looked at Josephine, and Josephine was afraid to meet Nina's eyes, as the thoughts flashed quickly through each little brain.