looked at him, and her own eyes fell.

"Will you come a little nearer. Mademoiselle?" said M. Formery.
"There are one or two questions--"

"Will you allow me?" said Guerchard, in a tone of such deference
that it left M. Formery no grounds for refusal.

M. Formery flushed and ground his teeth. "Have it your own way!" he
said ungraciously.

"Mademoiselle Kritchnoff," said Guerchard, in a tone of the most
good-natured courtesy, "there is a matter on which M. Formery needs
some information. The pendant which the Duke of Charmerace gave
Mademoiselle Gournay-Martin yesterday has been stolen."

"Stolen? Are you sure?" said Sonia in a tone of mingled surprise and
anxiety.

"Quite sure," said Guerchard. "We have exactly determined the
conditions under which the theft was committed. But we have every
reason to believe that the culprit, to avoid detection, has hidden
the pendant in the travelling-bag or trunk of somebody else in order
to--"

"My bag is upstairs in my bedroom, sir," Sonia interrupted quickly.
"Here is the key of it."

In order to free her hands to take the key from her wrist-bag, she
set her cloak on the back of a couch. It slipped off it, and fell to