ey'd found?'

'It wasn't they that found it. It was lying on their doorstep the day of
the Drawing-room; they'd had a party, and it must have dropped off some
lady's dress. But their mother had sent to all the ladies that had been
there, and it wasn't theirs.'

Anne was listening so eagerly that her eyes almost looked as if they
were going to jump out of her head.

'What is it like--the brooch, I mean--didn't you say it was a brooch?'
she asked in a panting sort of voice.

Ludovic Barry stared at her.

'It's because they've lost one,' said Flossy quickly, 'at least their
mother has, and they would give anything to find it. It's a--I forget
the word--a family treasure, you know.'

'An heirloom,' I said. 'Yes, that's the worst of it. But, Anne, don't
look so wild about it,' I went on, laughingly. 'What is the brooch like,
that your cousins have found? Is it diamonds?' I went on to the Barrys.

'I think so,' said Ludo. 'It's some kind of jewels. But the Nearns are
quite small children; they wouldn't know, and I don't suppose they've
seen it. They'd only heard their mother and the servants talking about
it. We can easily find out, though. I'll run round there--they live in
our Square--when we go home.'

'No, Ludo, I'm afraid you can't, for mamma heard this morning that----'

At that very moment we were interrupted by another dance beginning. And
when it was over it was time for us all to go. Flossy Barry didn't
finish her sentence. I saw her saying something to her brother, and then
she came up to us.

'I'll find out about the found brooch,' she said. 'I won't forget. And
if it's the least likely to be yours, I'll ask mamma to write to your
mamma. That'll be the best.'

'Thank you,' I said. She was a nice, kind little girl, and I was sure
she wouldn't forget. But Anne looked disappointed.

'I don't see why she tried to stop her brother going about it at once,'
she said.

'Perhaps there was some reason,' I said. 'And Anne, if I were you, I
wouldn't say anything about it to mums. Raising her hopes, you know,
very likely for nothing, for it's such a _chance_ that it's our
brooch--ours has been advertised so, these people would have seen the
notices.'

Anne did not answer.

Flossy had a reason, and a good one, for what she said to her brother.
But she had been told not to speak of what her mother had heard, as Mrs.
Barry said it was not certain. The 'it' was that these little cousins of
theirs had got the wh