“Please let me look at it.”
Vance took from his pocket a small circular box which he unscrewed, and there, in the centre of a circle of hair, lay the button. He handed the box to the wounded soldier. At this moment Kenrick entered the room.
“Ha, Lieutenant! What’s the news?” exclaimed Vance.
“Ask any one but me,” returned Kenrick. “Have I not been all the morning trying guns at the navy-yard? What have you there, Robert! A lock of hair? Ah! I have seen that hair before.”
“Impossible!” said Vance.
“Not at all!” replied Kenrick. “The color is too peculiar to be confounded. Miss Perdita Brown wore a bracelet of that hair the last evening we met her at the St. Charles.”
“Again I say, impossible,” quoth Vance. “Something like it perhaps, but not this. How could she have come by it?”
“Cousin,” replied Kenrick, “I’m quick to detect slight differences of color, and in this case I’m sure.”
Suddenly the Lieutenant noticed the little sleeve-button in Onslow’s hand, and, while the blood mounted to his forehead, turning to him said, “How did you come by this, Robert?”
“Why do you ask with so much interest?” inquired Vance.