y Cartwright? A horrible sensation overcame the
girl. She felt her blood growing cold, and oozing so sluggishly through
her veins that she could count the drops--drip, drip, drip! She hoped
that she had not turned ghastly pale. Above all things she hoped that she
was not going to faint! If she did that, Ruthven Smith would think--what
would he not think?

She found herself praying for strength and the power of self-control that
she might reason with her own intelligence. Of course, if this were the
diamond, Knight didn't dream that it had been stolen.

Just then a hand reached out at her left side and poured champagne into
her glass. It was the hand of Charrington, the butler. Annesley saw that
it was trembling. She had never seen Charrington's hand tremble before.
Butlers' hands were not supposed to tremble. Charrington spilled a little
champagne on the tablecloth, only a very little, no more than a drop or
two, yet Annesley started and glanced up. The butler was moving away when
she caught a glimpse of his face.

It was red, as usual, for his complexion and that of his younger brother
were alike in colouring; but there was a look of _strain_ on his
features, as if he were keeping his muscles taut.

Sir Elmer Cartwright began to talk to her. His voice buzzed unmeaningly
in her ears, as though she were coming out from under the influence of
chloroform.

"What will become of me?" she said to herself, and then was afraid she
had said it aloud. How awful that would be! Her eyes turned imploringly
to Sir Elmer. He was smiling, unaware of anything unusual.

"Oh, yes!" she exclaimed at random. Fortunately it seemed to be the right
answer; and the relief this assurance gave was like a helping hand to a
beginner skating on thin ice. Sir Elmer went on to repeat some story
which he said he had been telling the Duchess.

Annesley suddenly thought of a woman rider she had seen at a circus when
she was a child. The woman stood on the bare back of one horse and drove
six others, three abreast, all going very fast and noiselessly round a
ring.

"I must drive my thoughts as she did the horses," came flashing into the
girl's head. "I must think this out, and I must listen to Sir Elmer and
go on giving him right answers, and I must look just as usual. _I must!_

"For Knight's sake!" She seemed to hear the words whispered. Why for
Knight's sake? Oh, but of course she must try to think how it would
involve him if the blue diamond