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Rh Thérèse, Edith's maid, was waiting for me in the motor."

"And when you got home?"

"Edith had gone to bed and John had not come in. I did not want to disturb Edith, as she has been sleeping poorly, so I put the pearls in the drawer of my toilet table and dropped the key in one of my stockings. I don't think that I was ever so sleepy in my life, and when I woke up I had a splitting headache, which I put down to that nasty sweet orangeade and the stuff in it."

"Thank you," said I. "That's quite enough, Miss Dalghren."

"Have you got a clue?" asked John.

"I have," I answered.

"And you think that you can get back the pearls?" "Yes," I answered, and turned to Edith. "Are your pearls safe?" I asked.

Edith nodded. "I haven't looked," said she, "but it's not necessary. I opened the safe to get Mary's out last night and mine were there. I did not leave the room after that, as I was not feeling well, and had my dinner in bed. Nobody could have come into the room during the night because—because I did not go to sleep."

"Not at all?" I asked quickly.

"Not a wink," she confessed, and the colour came into her cheeks. "I heard every quarter from the clocks at St. Francois Xavier and the Invalides."

"In that case," said I, guessing why she had not slept, "it's as you say hardly worth while to look.