The baroness appealed to Josephine.

She only blushed in an extraordinary way, and said nothing.

They puzzled, and puzzled, and were as much in the dark as ever, when lo! one of the suspected parties delivered himself into the hands of justice with ludicrous simplicity.

It happened to be Dr.
Aubertin's hour of out-a-door study; and he came mooning along, buried in a book, and walked slowly into the group--started, made a slight apology, and was mooning off, lost in his book again.

Then the baroness, who had eyed him with grim suspicion all the time, said with well-affected nonchalance, "Doctor, you dropped your purse; we have just picked it up." And she handed it to him.