nything resembling a star in it. Will you fetch it for him to look at? I
noticed as you got up from the table that you hadn't put it on to-night."

For an instant the girl could not answer. If only he had hit upon
something else. If only it had occurred to her to hide her left hand
after taking off the ring! But she could not have foreseen this.

For the first time she inclined to believe in the Countess de Santiago's
supernatural power. Could it be that this scene had pictured itself in
the crystal? Could it be that now in a moment something dreadful would
happen?

She realized that Knight was trusting to the quickness of her wits; that
not only had he overheard Ruthven Smith's talk about the Malindore
diamond, but he credited her with having caught the drift of the words,
and counted on her loyalty to help him. As he spoke he looked at her with
the wistful, seeking look she had seen in his eyes when they were first
married.

"He's afraid I'm angry with him for buying the diamond in spite of
knowing what it was," she thought, "but he trusts me to stand by him
now."

Her mind grew clear. After a pause no longer than the drawing of a breath
she was ready to rise to the situation Knight had created. In fact, she
saw safety for him and herself, as well as a realistic surprise for
Ruthven Smith. But the latter, rendered brave to act through fear of
loss, was too quick for her.

"I beg your pardon! Before you go, may I have the pleasure of a nearer
look at that beautiful enamel brooch of yours?"

It was Annesley's impulse to step back as without waiting for permission
the narrow head, sleekly brushed and slightly bald at the top, bent over
her laces. But she remembered herself in time and stood still. She dared
not glance at Knight, to send him a message of encouragement, but she
knew that for once even his resourcefulness had failed, and that he must
be steeling himself to the brutal discovery of his secret.

Yet even then she did not guess what Ruthven Smith's plan was until the
thing had happened. He peered at the brooch, which represented a bunch of
grapes in small cabochon amethysts and leaves of green enamel. Adjusting
his eyeglasses, they slipped from his nose and fell on the lace of her
fichu.

"Oh, how awkward of me! A thousand pardons!" he cried. Making a nervous
grab for the glasses, which hung from a chain, he snatched up her chain
as well, and with a quick jerk of seeming inadvertence wrenched from its