"Why, what is it, Nellie?" cried her sister, springing up.
"I—I've lost it!" gasped Nell, sinking limply into a chair, and trembling convulsively. "I'm sure—it's been stolen!"
"Lost it!" echoed Sue, reviewing in one quick mental flash Nell's most valuable possessions. "Not the diamond necklace!"
"Oh, Sue!" wailed Nell. "How can you be so mercenary? Oh, I wish it was the necklace! But it isn't! It's the note!"
It was Sue's turn to gasp, to turn pale, to sink into a chair.
"The note!" she echoed, hoarsely. "Not Lord Vernon's!"
Nell nodded mutely, her face a study for the Tragic Muse.
"But I thought you destroyed it," said Sue. "You said you were going to!"
"I know—but I didn't," answered Nell, a faint tinge of pink in her pallid cheeks. "I—I didn't see the need of destroying it. I supposed nobody knew, and I—I thought I'd keep it as a—a souvenir, you know. I had it in my desk. I am sure I locked it before I came down this evening, but just now I found it open and the note gone."
"Well, and what did you do then?"