must go."
But just then she heard voices in the hall below, and, believing that
Mrs. Montague had returned, she turned back and sat down again with
a sinking heart, assured that her resolve had come too late.

At six o'clock she went down to the basement, where she had been told
dinner would be served, and where she found no one save Mary and Sarah,
the cook, who proved to be a good-natured woman of about thirty-five
years, and who at once manifested a motherly interest in the pretty and
youthful seamstress.

Mary informed her, during the meal, that Mrs. Montague was going out that
evening to a grand reception, and had sent word that she could not see
her until the next morning; but that she would find some sheets and
pillow slips in the sewing room, which she could begin to work upon after
breakfast, and she would lay out other work for her later.

Mona uttered a sigh of relief over the knowledge that the meeting, which
she so much dreaded, was to be postponed a little, and after dinner she
returned to her room, and sat down quite composedly to read the morning
paper, which she had purchased on her way to Mrs. Montague's.

While thus engaged, her eye fell upon the following paragraph:

"No clew has as yet been obtained to the mysterious Palmer affair,
although both the police and detectives are doing their utmost to trace
the clever thief. It is most earnestly hoped that they will succeed
in their efforts, as such successful knavery is an incentive to even
greater crimes."

"What can it mean?" Mona said to herself; "and what a blind paragraph! Of
course, it refers to something that has been previously published, and
which might explain it. Can it be that Mr. Palmer's jewelry store has
been robbed?"

This, of course, led her thoughts to Ray Palmer, and she fell into
troubled musings regarding his apparent neglect of her, and in the midst
of this there came a rap upon her door.

She arose to open it, and found Mary standing outside.

"Please, Miss Richards, will you come down to Mrs. Montague's room?" she
asked. "She has ripped the lace flounce from her reception dress while
putting it on, and wants you to repair it for her."

Mona was somewhat excited by this summons; but, unlocking her trunk, she
found her thimble, needles, and scissors, and followed Mary down stairs
to the second floor and into a large room over the drawing-room.

It was a beautiful room, most luxuriously and tastefully fitted up as a
la