this well. But before she had gained it
she saw Mrs. Varrick leave her room and step to Jessie's.

She remembered Mrs. Varrick did not like the girl. A score of
conjectures flashed through her mind as to the object of that
surreptitious visit; but she put them all from her as being highly
impracticable and not to be thought of.

The morrow would tell the story. She must wait patiently until then, and
find out for herself.

How thankful she was that she had not been three minutes earlier. In
that case Mrs Varrick would have discovered her. And then, too, a
tragedy had been averted.

She took the vial from her bosom, and with trembling hands shook its
contents from the window down into the grounds below, and threw the tiny
bottle out among the rose bushes, murmuring:

"If it is ever done at all, it must not be done that way."

Then she threw herself on the couch just as the day was breaking, and
dropped into an uneasy sleep, from which she was startled by a terrific
rap on the door.

CHAPTER XI.

GERELDA COULD HAVE SAVED HER.

Hastily opening the door, Gerelda saw one of the maids.

"My mistress wishes to see you in the morning-room," she said. "I have
brought you some breakfast. You are to partake of this first; but my
mistress hopes you will not be long."

Gerelda swallowed a roll and drank the tea and hastened to the
morning-room. Here Gerelda found not only Mrs. Varrick, but every man
and woman who lived beneath the roof of the Varrick mansion.

For a moment Gerelda hesitated.

Had some one discovered that she was in disguise, and informed Mrs.
Varrick? She trembled violently from head to foot.

Mrs. Varrick broke in upon her confused thoughts.

"Pardon my somewhat abrupt summons, Miss Duncan," she said, motioning
her to a chair, "but something has occurred which renders it imperative
that I should speak collectively to every member of this household.

"Most of you remember, no doubt, that I wore my diamond bracelet to the
opera last night. When I returned home I unclasped it from my arm,
myself, and laid it carefully away in my jewel-box. This morning it is
missing. My maid and I made a careful examination of the room where I am
in the habit of keeping my jewels. We found that the room had not been
entered from the outside, that all the windows and doors were securely
bolted on the inside. I am therefore forced to accept the theory that my
room was visited by some one from the inside of t