it. She
peered under and about each article of furniture. But no pin appeared.
While she was on her knees searching the corners of the room and edges
of the rug, Erma appeared in the doorway. She gave a peal of delight.

"Have you turned Moslem; or is it Mohammed who takes long journeys on
his knees to do penance? I have passed your door twice and each time I
find you crawling about on all fours like a Teddy Bear."

"I've lost my pin. I am sick about it."

"I wouldn't be. No pin is worth being even half sick about. Buy yourself
another, or better yet, Christmas is coming. Throw out a few gentle
hints to your friends. Tell them you have lost your pin. They would be
very stupid not to understand that it was their duty to replace it.
Perhaps more than one will respond as becomes friends. You may have a
half dozen pins in place of one."

"This cannot be replaced. It has belonged to our family for generations.
The story is that one of the Loraines who were French, for political
reasons, left his country and went to Brazil. While there, he discovered
valuable mines. Selecting the finest gems, he returned to France and
presented them to the king, and was immediately restored to favor. Two
stones of the collection were pushed aside as not worthy so great a
ruler. Tourie Loraine kept these for himself and had them made into
rings. Later the rings were made into earrings. I think that was done by
my great-grandfather as a gift to his bride. Grandmother had twin
daughters. Earrings were no longer in style and so the stones were made
into brooches and set about with her hair. Each little girl was given
one. My mother gave hers to me. The other which belonged to Aunt Harriet
disappeared years ago."

Erma laughed with delight. She loved romance either in real life or
between the pages of a book.

"How perfectly lovely to have such glorious things happen in one's
family! Nothing like that ever happened in our family. My people did
nothing more exciting than write charters and fight Indians. I think we
were very commonplace. It is the French people who have the romantic
blood. Tell me some more, Helen. You have no idea how interesting this
is."

"There is little more to tell. After the stones had been in our family
for several generations, it was discovered by the merest accident, that
they were yellow diamonds and very valuable, on account of their size
and purity. They were not really yellow, you know, but sometimes
reflect