er, of course. She is after the Gaster jewels."

"Humph!" I said, gloomily. "That cuts us out, doesn't it?"

"Does it?" asked Henriette, enigmatically.

It was about ten weeks later that the newspapers of the whole country
were ringing with the startling news of the mysterious disappearance of
Mrs. Gaster's jewels. The lady had been robbed of three hundred and
sixty-eight thousand dollars worth of gems, and there was apparently no
clew even to the thief. Henriette and I, of course, knew that Fiametta
de Belleville had accomplished her mission, but apparently no one else
knew it. True, she had been accused, and had been subjected to a most
rigid examination by the Newport police and the New York Central Office,
but no proof of any kind establishing her guilt could be adduced, and
after a week of suspicion she was to all intents and purposes relieved
of all odium.

"She'll skip now," said I.

"Not she," said Henriette. "To disappear now would be a confession of
guilt. If Fiametta de Belleville is the woman I take her for she'll stay
right here as if nothing had happened, but of course not at Mrs.
Gaster's."

"Where then?" I asked.

"With Mrs. A. J. Van Raffles," replied Henriette. "The fact is," she
added, "I have already engaged her. She has acted her part well, and has
seemed so prostrated by the unjust suspicion of the world that even Mrs.
Gaster is disturbed over her condition. She has asked her to remain, but
Fiametta has refused. 'I couldn't, madam,' she said when Mrs. Gaster
asked her to stay. 'You have accused me of a fearful crime--a crime of
which I am innocent--and--I'd rather work in a factory, or become a
shop-girl in a department store, than stay longer in a house where such
painful things have happened.' Result, next Tuesday Fiametta de
Belleville comes to me as _my_ maid."

"Well, Henriette," said I, "I presume you know your own business, but
why you lay yourself open to being robbed yourself and to having the
profits of your own business diminished I can't see. Please remember
that I warned you against this foolish act."

"All right, Bunny, I'll remember," smiled Mrs. Van Raffles, and there
the matter was dropped for the moment.

The following Tuesday Fiametta de Belleville was installed in the Van
Raffles household as the maid of Mrs. A. J. Van Raffles. To her eagle
eye it was another promising field for profit, for Henriette had spared
neither pains nor money to impress Fiametta with the ide