"It's the strangest thing," Miss Lucy was saying. "I remember laying it on the dresser after showing it to you, and then I was called away, and I can't recollect putting it in the box. I know I locked the door when I went out—I don't understand it!"
"And you say nobody but Polly has been in the room since?"
The voice belonged to Miss Curtis, one of Miss Lucy's closest friends.
"Unless it was entered with a skeleton key."
"Well, there's only one solution to the musterd, it seems to me," Miss Curtis replied.
"I won't, I won't believe it!" Miss Lucy burst out. "Polly is honesty itself. She would n't do such a thing any more than— you or I would. If it were some children—but Polly!"
"You might question her anyway; ask her if she noticed the ring when she came in after those napkins."
"I—can't! She'd see through it at once. Polly is bright. It would break her heart to know we had such a thought. I believe it got knocked off the dresser some way and will be found sooner or later; but I wanted to give it to Elsie to-day. I'm all upset about it!"
"Well, I can't help thinking—"
Polly, weak and wretched, shrank away, and went softly back through the long corridor. At the door of the ward she met Dr. Dudley.