en one of the sufferers from that gang of thieves Scotland
Yard can't lay its hands on."

Ruthven Smith was on the point of shrinking into himself, as was his wont
if any personal topic of conversation came up, when it flashed into his
mind that here was an opportunity. If he did not take it, so easy a one
might not occur again. He braced himself for a supreme effort.

"Oh, yes, yes, I was robbed," he admitted. "A serious loss! Some fine
pearls I had been buying--not for myself, but for the Van Vrecks. I
seldom collect valuables for myself. I only wish these things had been
mine. I should not have that sense of being an unfaithful servant--though
I did my best----"

"Of course you did," Lady Cartwright soothed him. "But these thieves--if
it's the same gang, as we all think--are too clever for the cleverest of
us. As for the police, they seem to be nowhere. I haven't suffered yet,
but each morning when I wake up, I'm astonished to find everything as
usual. Not that it wouldn't _seem_ as usual, even if the gang had paid us
a visit and made a clean sweep of our poor possessions. They appear to be
able to leak through keyholes, as nothing in the houses they go to is
ever disturbed."

"Anyhow, they have latchkeys," retorted Ruthven Smith, with what for him
might be considered gaiety of manner. "The thief or thieves who relieved
me of my pearls--or rather, my employer's pearls--apparently walked in as
a member of the household might have done."

Among those who had involuntarily suspended talk to hear what Ruthven
Smith was saying about jewels and jewel thieves was Annesley. Though the
party would never have been but for Knight and herself, Dick and
Constance were playing host and hostess with all the outward
responsibility of those parts. Lord Annesley-Seton had a duchess on his
right, a countess on his left; Lady Annesley-Seton was fenced in by the
duke and the count pertaining to these ladies; Mrs. Nelson Smith sat
between two less important men, who liked the dinner provided by the
American millionaire's miraculous new chef, and they could safely be
neglected for a moment.

Annesley felt that Ruthven Smith was, in a way, her special guest, and
she was anxious that he should not be the failure Knight had prophesied.
She wanted him not to regret that he had flung himself on the tender
mercies of this smart house party, and almost equally she wanted his two
neighbours not to be bored by him. Knight would hate that. He