were engaged. Why, Ray
Vandyck comes of the best old Dutch stock, and his fortune is something
worth while. I wonder what young Vandyck will say to this, and how that
high-stepping old lady, his mother, will fancy having her son thrown
over for John Burrill. I wish I knew how Jasper Lamotte would take it."

So, in many a household, tongues wagged fast and furious; misfortune had
smitten the mighty ones of W----, and brought them within range of the
gossiping tongues of their social inferiors; and, while the village
oracles improve their opportunities, and old women hatch theories, the
like of which was never heard on earth, let us make the acquaintance of
some of the "mighty ones."

CHAPTER II.

W---- INVESTIGATES.

Wardour Place, the home of Miss Constance Wardour, and the scene of the
"_great_ Diamond robbery," lies a little east from the town, away from
the clamor of its mills, and the contamination of its _canaille_.

It is a beautiful old place, built upon a slight elevation, surrounded
by stately old trees, with a wide sweep of well-kept lawn, bordered with
rose thickets, and dotted here and there with great clumps of tall
syringas, white lilacs, acacias, and a variety of ornamental trees and
flowering shrubs.

The mansion stands some distance from the road, and is reached by a
broad, sweeping drive and two footpaths that approach from opposite
directions.

In the rear are orchard and gardens, and beyond these a grassy slope
that curves down to meet the river, that is ever hurrying townward to
seize the great mill wheels and set them sweeping round and round.

The mansion itself is a large, roomy edifice, built by a master
architect. It at once impresses one with a sense of its true purpose: a
home, stately, but not stiff, abounding in comfort and aristocratic
ease; a place of serene repose and inborn refinement. Such, Wardour
Place was intended to be; such, it has been and is.

Miss Constance Wardour, mistress of the domain and last of the race, is
alone in her own favorite morning room. It is two hours since the
discovery of the robbery, and during those two hours confusion has
reigned supreme. Everybody, except Miss Wardour, has seemingly run wild.
But Miss Wardour has kept her head, and has prevented the servants from
giving the alarm upon the highway, and thus filling her house with a
promiscuous mob. She has compelled them to comport themselves like
rational beings; has ordered the librar