to see the
object mentioned immediately produced.

But no coin appeared.

"I have other amusements waiting," suggested their host, with a smile in
which even his wife could detect no signs of impatience. "Now let Robert
put it back into the cabinet."

Robert was the butler.

Blank looks, negative gestures, but still no coin.

"Perhaps it is in somebody's lap," timidly ventured one of the younger
women. "It doesn't seem to be on the table."

Immediately all the ladies began lifting their napkins and shaking out
the gloves which lay under them, in an effort to relieve their own
embarrassment and that of the gentlemen who had not even so simple a
resource as this at their command.

"It can't be lost," protested Mr. Sedgwick, with an air of perfect
confidence. "I saw it but a minute ago in somebody's hand. Darrow, you
had it; what did you do with it?"

"Passed it along."

"Well, well, it must be under somebody's plate or doily." And he began
to move about his own and such dishes as were within reach of his hand.

Each guest imitated him, lifting glasses and turning over spoons till
Mr. Sedgwick himself bade them desist. "It's slipped to the floor," he
nonchalantly concluded. "A toast to the ladies, and we will give Robert
the chance of looking for it."

As they drank this toast, his apparently careless, but quietly astute,
glance took in each countenance about him. The coin was very valuable
and its loss would be keenly felt by him. Had it slipped from the table
some one's eye would have perceived it, some hand would have followed
it. Only a minute or two before, the attention of the whole party had
been concentrated upon it. Darrow had held it up for all to see, while
he discoursed upon its history. He would take Darrow aside at the first
opportunity and ask him----But--it! how could he do that? These were his
intimate friends. He knew them well, more than well, with one exception,
and he----Well, he was the handsomest of the lot and the most debonair
and agreeable. A little more gay than usual to-night, possibly a trifle
too gay, considering that a man of Mr. Blake's social weight and
business standing sat at the board; but not to be suspected, no, not to
be suspected, even if he was the next man after Darrow and had betrayed
something like confusion when the eyes of the whole table turned his way
at the former's simple statement of "I passed it on." Robert would find
the coin; he was a fool to doubt it; and