n the wall. I thought of
opening it to make sure. There wasn't--enough time."

"I'll open it ... now!" said Beverley. Her words were firm, yet she
hesitated, and turning, the envelope over, stared at the five
official-looking red seals. What if it should contain legal documents
belonging to some client of O'Reilly's?

"Tap--tap!" came at the door.

Beverley laid the envelope on the glass table, where Clo's medicine
bottles once had stood. Over the red seals she flung her handkerchief,
lest it should be Roger at the door.

Meanwhile, Clo had answered the knock and revealed Johnson.

"Madam, the lady who came with Mr. Sands wishes to see you immediately;
it's very urgent," he announced.

"Say I'll be there in a few minutes," she replied. "I can't come just
yet."

Johnson departed. "Madam will come in a few minutes," he repeated to
Miss Blackburne, who had been anxiously awaiting him at a half-open
door. "I think," he added, "she is busy, miss."

"In that case," suggested the pearl-stringer, "perhaps you'd better call
Mr. Sands."

"Very well, miss, I'll do so." Johnson turned away, and Miss Blackburne
retreated to the boudoir.

But it occurred to Clo that Roger might be summoned if Beverley delayed.

"Something must be worrying Miss Blackburne," she said. "I wonder if
it's anything you'd like Mr. Sands to mix up in, or if you'd rather
attend to it yourself? You know, we've lots of time before ten o'clock.
If the papers are in this envelope, it's all right. If not, there's
nothing doing."

Just why Beverley did not want Roger to go to her boudoir she hardly
knew, unless she feared that a pearl might be missing, and that Roger
would be more vexed than he was already. Whatever the motive in her
mind, she felt suddenly impelled to haste. Even with Clo she could not
leave the envelope. Wrapping it in the handkerchief to hide the address,
she hurried off with it in her hand.

"You sent for me, Miss Blackburne?" she asked, as she threw open the
door.

The pearl-stringer stood by the table, looking pale and strange.

"Oh, Mrs. Sands," she exclaimed, "you told me the pearls were in their
case, but they're not. I found it empty. You must have laid them
somewhere else."

Beverley wondered whether she had become temporarily insane, and had
hidden the pearls in a place already forgotten. But in her heart she
knew that nothing of the sort had happened.

"No," she said, answering herself as well as Miss Blackburne,