And you fell for it!" He shook his head sorrowingly, chidingly.

"Here's one case where remorse might be highly proper--and safest; better just mail it back to the party you lifted it from." With good-humored contempt he tossed the pendant upon the bed.

Mrs.De Peyster clutched it and thrust it beneath her pillow.
"I believe, Angelica, my dear," he commented, "that in view of the capacity this pearl incident has revealed, it is strictly up to me to assume charge of every detail of our plan." He sat down and in his fluent manner discussed the day's developments and their preparations for the future; and he was still talking when, fifteen minutes later, the door opened and Matilda entered.

Her face, of late so often ashen, was ashen as though almost from habit.
"Oh, oh," she quavered, "the servants' bell rang--and I answered it, like I'd been told to do--and in stepped four men--two of them the policemen we let in last night, and two men I never saw before--and they asked if they might speak to my brother who was visiting me.

And I--I promised to call him down.