"Where did you put it then?" asked Mr. Fenn, not unkindly, but curiously.
"Let me see," faltered Dolly, "I don't quite remember. I guess I laid it on this table."
"If so, it must be there now, my dear," said Mr. Forbes, suavely. "Look thoroughly."
Dolly did look thoroughly, and Dotty came over to help her, but the earring was not on the table.
Nor was it on other tables that were about the room; nor on any chair or shelf or settee or window-sill.
"Where CAN it be?" said Dotty, greatly alarmed, lest Dolly's having fastened it to her dress should have been the means of losing it.
"Are you sure you removed it from your frock, Miss Fayre?" asked Fenn, and at that moment Dolly took a dislike to the man. His voice was low and pleasant, but the inflection was meaning, and he seemed to imply that Dolly might have worn it from the room.
"Of course, I am," Dolly replied, in a scared, low voice, which trembled as she spoke.
"There's an idea," said Mr. Forbes. "Mightn't you have left it hooked into your lace, Dolly, and it's there still? Run and look, my dear."
"I'll go with you," said Dotty, but Fenn said, "No, Miss Rose, you'd better stay here."