--but how much better that we weren't at home! Shall
we go now?" Then together they followed the others, and on the stairs
Lizzie explained that in her desk, of which she always carried
the key round her neck, there was what money she had by her;--two
ten-pound notes, and four five-pound notes, and three sovereigns;--in
all, forty-three pounds. Her other jewels,--the jewels which she had
possessed over and above the fatal diamond necklace,--were in her
dressing-case. Patience, she did not doubt, had known that the money
was there, and certainly knew of her jewels. So they went up-stairs.
The desk was open and the money gone. Five or six rings and a
bracelet had been taken also from Lizzie's dressing-case, which she
had left open. Of Mrs. Carbuncle's property sufficient had been
stolen to make a long list in that lady's handwriting. Lucinda
Roanoke's room had not been entered,--as far as they could judge.
The girl had taken the best of her own clothes, and a pair of strong
boots belonging to the cook. A superintendent of police was there
before they went to bed, and a list was made out. The superintendent
was of opinion that the thing had been done very cleverly, but was
of opinion that the thieves had expected to find more plunder. "They
don't care so much about banknotes, my lady, because they fetches
such a low price with them as they deal with. The three sovereigns is
more to them than all the forty pounds in notes." The superintendent
had heard of the diamond necklace, and expressed an opinion that poor
Lady Eustace was especially marked out for misfortune. "It all comes
of having such a girl as that about her," said Mrs. Carbuncle. The
superintendent, who intended to be consolatory to Lizzie, expressed
his opinion that it was very hard to know what a young woman was.
"They looks as soft as butter, and they're as sly as foxes, and as
quick, as quick--as quick as greased lightning, my lady." Such a
piece of business as this which had just occurred, will make people
intimate at a very short notice.

And so the diamond necklace, known to be worth ten thousand pounds,
had at last been stolen in earnest! Lizzie, when the policemen were
gone, and the noise was over, and the house was closed, slunk away to
her bedroom, refusing any aid in lieu of that of the wicked Patience.
She herself had examined the desk beneath the eyes of her two friends
and of the policemen, and had seen at once that the case was gone.
The money wa