cloak on her arm. She stood
looking round her with an air of some surprise; perhaps there was even
a touch of fear in it. The long journey of the night before did not
seem to have dimmed at all her delicate beauty. The Duke's eyes rested
on her in an inquiring, wondering, even searching gaze. She looked at
him, and her own eyes fell.

"Will you come a little nearer. Mademoiselle?" said M. Formery. "There
are one or two questions--"

"Will you allow me?" said Guerchard, in a tone of such deference that
it left M. Formery no grounds for refusal.

M. Formery flushed and ground his teeth. "Have it your own way!" he
said ungraciously.

"Mademoiselle Kritchnoff," said Guerchard, in a tone of the most
good-natured courtesy, "there is a matter on which M. Formery needs
some information. The pendant which the Duke of Charmerace gave
Mademoiselle Gournay-Martin yesterday has been stolen."

"Stolen? Are you sure?" said Sonia in a tone of mingled surprise and
anxiety.

"Quite sure," said Guerchard. "We have exactly determined the
conditions under which the theft was committed. But we have every
reason to believe that the culprit, to avoid detection, has hidden the
pendant in the travelling-bag or trunk of somebody else in order to--"

"My bag is upstairs in my bedroom, sir," Sonia interrupted quickly.
"Here is the key of it."

In order to free her hands to take the key from her wrist-bag, she set
her cloak on the back of a couch. It slipped off it, and fell to the
ground at the feet of the Duke, who had not returned to his place
beside Germaine. While she was groping in her bag for the key, and all
eyes were on her, the Duke, who had watched her with a curious
intentness ever since her entry into the room, stooped quietly down and
picked up the cloak. His hand slipped into the pocket of it; his
fingers touched a hard object wrapped in tissue-paper. They closed
round it, drew it from the pocket, and, sheltered by the cloak,
transferred it to his own. He set the cloak on the back of the sofa,
and very softly moved back to his place by Germaine's side. No one in
the room observed the movement, not even Guerchard: he was watching
Sonia too intently.

Sonia found the key, and held it out to Guerchard.

He shook his head and said: "There is no reason to search your
bag--none whatever. Have you any other luggage?"

She shrank back a little from his piercing eyes, almost as if their
gaze scared her.

"Yes, my trunk ... it