n from her. Well, good-bye, I'm going to
seek her, and to try to catch the thief. Be sure you arrive at my
house in good time in the morning, Dove."

"Yes, sir, very sorry to hear your bad news," said Dove, in a
self-possessed voice, but Arthur saw that his color had changed, and
he wanted no stronger clue to confirm his suspicions. When he got into
the street he not only consulted his watch, but a time-table. A later
train than he had intended to travel by would take it to Rosebury
early in the morning. He would go by this train. Now he jumped into a
hansom and drove to his chambers. His servant came to him, to whom he
gave hasty directions.

"You're to buy the paint yourself, Lawson; see that it is properly
mixed, and the right shade. Move the plants from the balcony early in
the morning--the man will arrive in good time, and listen, Lawson, I
don't want him to be too closely watched."

"What do you mean by that, sir?" said Lawson.

"Only that you need not stay in the room all the time--come in and
out, of course--but don't imagine the man to be a thief until he is
proved such."

"Well, sir, your commands must be obeyed, of course, but you have many
articles of virtue and elegance about."

"Never mind that, Lawson--do as I tell you."

When his servant left the room Noel took a five-pound note out of his
pocket, and enclosing it in an open envelope laid it carelessly on the
chimney-piece. There was no writing on the envelope, and the note
might well have been slipped into it by mistake. Noel also slipped a
ring of some value from his finger, and dropped it into a little tray,
which contained odds and ends of different descriptions.

"Now I've laid my trap," he said to himself. "My poor little Daisy, I
hope I may ensnare your ogre to his destruction."

The next morning early Dove, well pleased with his job, and never
guessing that the smallest suspicions had attached themselves to him,
arrived at Noel's rooms. He was a most idle man, and seldom cared for
work, but he was pleased at Noel's singling him out, and imagined that
notwithstanding her running away, he owed this visit to little Daisy.

"She's a pert little thing," he said to himself, "and if she's so true
to me as all this, why I suppose I must leave her alone in the future.
I made a nice little haul out of her the other day, and I've got
several of them sovereigns about me still; but lor, wasn't she in a
piteous fright when I took that cheque away w