No doubt she weighed the matter in her own mind, and decided to give up all thought of Lady Mary's jewels, and to secure those which were ten times their value.

She could not have taken both without drawing suspicion upon herself.

Like a wise woman she left the smaller, and went in for the larger prize; a less clever one would have tried for both, and have failed.

She failed, it is true, by an oversight.

She could never have noticed that the piece of paper wrapped round the crescent was peculiar in any way, or she would not have left it on the table among the others.