you? Discharge Antoinette, eh? Oh, no, my
lady; you will think better of those hasty words, especially as I have a
suspicion of where madame's diamonds have gone."

"I lost them at the ball that night in Newport," cried Sally, springing
hastily to her feet, and facing the girl, her temper at a white heat.

"Monsieur Victor Lamont was with my lady when she lost them," returned
Antoinette, softly. "She wore them when she entered the carriage on the
beach that night, and she returned at day-break without them. You would
not like monsieur to know of that romantic little episode, eh?"

"I repeat, you are a fiend incarnate!" gasped Sally, trembling like an
aspen leaf.

"My lady sees it would be better to temporize with Antoinette than to
make an enemy of her. She will think better of discharging one whose
assistance may prove valuable to her. I will say no more. They are
coming to see what detains madame and her husband, little dreaming what
is in store for them."

CHAPTER XLVIII.

At that moment Andrew, the valet, came flying out of his master's room.

"Oh, Miss Margaret! Miss Margaret!" he cried, hoarsely, "how can I ever
tell you what had happened? But it was a mistake--indeed it was all a
mistake! I do not see how I ever came to do it!"

Margaret Gardiner hurriedly caught the man's arm in a firm grasp,
looking sternly in his face.

"Andrew," she said, with great calmness, "stop that shouting, and tell
me instantly what the matter is. Has--has--anything happened my brother
or--or his wife?"

Her quiet tone brought the valet to his senses more quickly than
anything else could have done.

"Yes, I'll tell you, Miss Margaret," he answered, hoarsely; "and though
master turns me off to-morrow for it, I swear to you earnestly that it
was all a terrible mistake."

"What has happened?" repeated Miss Margaret, sternly. "Get to the point
at once, Andrew."

"It was this way, Miss Margaret," he cried. "Master sent me for a glass
of brandy. I brought it to him. He always likes a few drops of cordial
put in it, and I went to his dresser, where I had placed the cordial a
few minutes before, took up the bottle hurriedly, and shook in a
generous quantity. Now it happened that I had also taken out a bottle of
drops--quieting drops which master had been taking for the last two
nights for a violent toothache--it is a powerful narcotic--to make him
sleep and forget his pain, he told me. I--I--don't know how I could have