ball had been acted upon and, the proper tests having been made, the
stone, for which so many believed a life to have been risked and another
taken, was declared to be an imitation, fine and successful beyond all
parallel, but still an imitation, of the great and renowned gem which
had passed through Tiffany's hands a twelve-month before: a decision
which fell like a thunderbolt on all such as had seen the diamond
blazing in unapproachable brilliancy on the breast of the unhappy Mrs.
Fairbrother only an hour or two before her death.

On me the effect was such that for days I lived in a dream, a condition
that, nevertheless, did not prevent me from starting a certain little
inquiry of my own, of which more hereafter.

Here let me say that I did not share the general confusion on this
topic. I had my own theory, both as to the cause of this substitution
and the moment when it was made. But the time had not yet come for me to
advance it. I could only stand back and listen to the suppositions aired
by the press, suppositions which fomented so much private discussion
that ere long the one question most frequently heard in this connection
was not who struck the blow which killed Mrs. Fairbrother (this was a
question which some seemed to think settled), but whose juggling hand
had palmed off the paste for the diamond, and how and when and where had
the jugglery taken place?

Opinions on this point were, as I have said, many and various. Some
fixed upon the moment of exchange as that very critical and hardly
appreciable one elapsing between the murder and Mr. Durand's appearance
upon the scene. This theory, I need not say, was advanced by such as
believed that while he was not guilty of Mrs. Fairbrother's murder, lie
had been guilty of taking advantage of the same to rob the body of what,
in the terror and excitement of the moment, he evidently took to be her
great gem. To others, among whom were many eyewitnesses of the event,
it appeared to be a conceded fact that this substitution had been made
prior to the ball and with Mrs. Fairbrother's full cognizance. The
effectual way in which she had wielded her fan between the glittering
ornament on her breast and the inquisitive glances constantly leveled
upon it might at the time have been due to coquetry, but to them it
looked much more like an expression of fear lest the deception in which
she was indulging should be discovered. No one fixed the time where I
did; but then, no