"Did you see a sovereign on the dressing-table?" asked the lady, with the air of a magistrate questioning a witness.
"No, indeed, ma'am, I did not," said Norah.
"Did you see one when you tidied my room?" Mrs. Lowndes turned her keen gray eyes upon Martha, to whom this last question was addressed.
"No, I never saw a sovereign, nor nothing like it, ma'am; I could take my oath that I did not. I did not so much as enter the room till Norah had been there, and gone out again."
Mrs. Lowndes looked very grave, and somewhat perplexed. "I certainly left a sovereign on that table when I came down to breakfast, and an hour afterwards it as certainly was gone. There are only two individuals who could have entered, and did enter, that room during my absence, and both deny having seen the money. I cannot doubt that one of them is uttering a falsehood, and that she who utters it is also the thief."
The idea of being suspected of such a crime as theft covered the face of Norah with crimson; she attempted to speak, but could not bring out a word.
"O ma'am!" exclaimed Martha, in alarm; "Norah went in first; you heard her own that she went in the first."
"I never saw the sovereign," gasped Norah.
"I'll be bound that Norah never touched the gold," said the gentleman. p. 143.