But as for the earrings--I will tell you, Mlle.

Celie was not wearing them when she went away from the Villa Rose." "But--but," stammered Ricardo, "the case upon the dressing-room table was empty." "Still, she was not wearing them, I know," said Hanaud decisively.
"How do you know ?" cried Ricardo, gazing at Hanaud with awe in his eyes.

"How could you know ?" "Because"-- and Hanaud struck a majestic attitude, like a king in a play--"because I am the captain of the ship." Upon that Mr.Ricardo suffered a return of his ill-humour.
"I do not like to be trifled with," he remarked, with as much dignity as his ruffled hair and the bed-clothes allowed him.

He looked sternly at the newspaper, turning it over, and then he uttered a cry of surprise.
"But this is yesterday's paper!" he said.
"Yesterday evening's paper," Hanaud corrected.
"Printed at Geneva!" "Printed, and published and sold at Geneva," said Hanaud.
"When did you send the advertisement in, then ?" "I wrote a letter while we were taking our luncheon," Hanaud explained.
"The letter was to Besnard, asking him to telegraph the advertisement at once." "But you never said a word about it to us," Ricardo grumbled.
"No.

And was I not wise ?" said Hanaud, with complacency.