The lady ate heartily, working without haste and without delay through the elaborate menu of the luncheon.

Nella noticed that she had beautiful white teeth.

Then a remarkable thing happened.

A cream puff was served to the Baroness by way of sweets, and Nella was astonished to see the little lady remove the top, and with a spoon quietly take something from the interior which looked like a piece of folded paper.

No one who had not been watching with the eye of a lynx would have noticed anything extraordinary in the action; indeed, the chances were nine hundred and ninety-nine to one that it would pass unheeded.