s thinking how a man, if he so wished, could pass from the very heart
of this assemblage into the quiet passageway, and so on into the alcove,
without attracting very much attention from his fellow guests. I forgot
that there was another way of approach even less noticeable that by
the small staircase running up beyond the arch directly to the
dressing-rooms.

That no confusion may arise in any one's mind in regard to these curious
approaches, I subjoin a plan of this portion of the lower floor as it
afterward appeared in the leading dailies.

"And Mr. Durand?" I stammered, as I followed the inspector back to the
room where we had left that gentleman. "You will believe his statement
now and look for this second intruder with the guiltily-hanging head and
frightened mien?"

"Yes," he replied, stopping me on the threshold of the door and taking
my hand kindly in his, "if--(don't start, my dear; life is full of
trouble for young and old, and youth is the best time to face a sad
experience) if he is not himself the man you saw staring in frightened
horror at his breast. Have you not noticed that he is not dressed in
all respects like the other gentlemen present? That, though he has not
donned his overcoat, he has put on, somewhat prematurely, one might say,
the large silk handkerchief lie presumably wears under it? Have you not
noticed this, and asked yourself why?"

I had noticed it. I had noticed it from the moment I recovered from my
fainting fit, but I had not thought it a matter of sufficient interest
to ask, even of myself, his reason for thus hiding his shirt-front. Now
I could not. My faculties were too confused, my heart too deeply shaken
by the suggestion which the inspector's words conveyed, for me to be
conscious of anything but the devouring question as to what I should do
if, by my own mistaken zeal, I had succeeded in plunging the man I loved
yet deeper into the toils in which he had become enmeshed.

The inspector left me no time for the settlement of this question.
Ushering me back into the room where Mr. Durand and my uncle awaited
our return in apparently unrelieved silence, he closed the door upon
the curious eyes of the various persons still lingering in the hall, and
abruptly said to Mr. Durand:

"The explanations you have been pleased to give of the manner in
which this diamond came into your possession are not too fanciful for
credence, if you can satisfy us on another point which has awakened