[CHAPTER XIX.]
AFTER THE CONCERT.
WHEN Celia first discovered her loss, she was too shocked to utter a sound. She dropped into a chair and covered her face with her hands whilst she tried to collect her thoughts and make up her mind how to act. Then the full horror of her position fell upon her. The butterfly brooch was lost, there could be no doubt about that; and, as she would not be able to replace it, Sir Jasper would think it had been stolen, and even if she told the truth, he would never accept her explanation that she had only intended to borrow it for the time.
Had her mother been there, very likely Celia would have made a full confession to her of all her misdoings; but she shrank from telling either Lulu or Mr. Tillotson the true facts of the case. How could she say she had taken the brooch unknown to Sir Jasper when she had led them to believe he had made her a present of the jewel? She uttered a wail of distress as she reflected thus, which sound brought Lulu into the room, looking dismayed and startled, to ascertain what was amiss.
"For goodness sake, speak, Celia!" cried Lulu after several vain attempts to make her friend tell her trouble. "Are you ill? What is it?"
"My brooch!" gasped Celia, sobbing as if her heart would break, and raising a pail of miserable blue eyes bedewed with tears to Lulu's concerned face.
"Your brooch? The diamond brooch, do you mean?"
"Yes. I've lost it! Oh, what shall I do?" —and Celia wrung her hands despairingly.
"Lost it!" For a moment Lulu looked as shocked as her friend. "Oh, Celia, impossible!" she cried. "Perhaps you've dropped it in the room somewhere, or on the stairs."
A gleam of hope illuminated Celia's face, but it died away when, after an exhaustive search, no brooch could be found. The servants, summoned by Lulu, had joined in the search; and Mr. Tillotson, hearing a commotion, had come from the dining-room to learn what was wrong. Very grave had he looked on hearing that the butterfly brooch was lost, and late though it was, had put on his hat and overcoat, and had gone out. On his return, he explained that he had been to the concert hall, and to the police station, and added that nothing more could be done that night.