"I don't know why she should have been," said Haskins; "she must have guessed that I had taken it, and would send it back. Oh, by the way, you may as well put this into it. I opened the case for a cigarette and found this. It fell out," and he passed along the coral hand.
Mrs. Berch's dead-white face flushed, and her black eyes glittered. "I am glad that is not lost," she said eagerly. "It was this that Madge was anxious about."
"What is it?"
"Some ornament to which Madge attaches some value, I fancy."
"H'm. Is it the badge of any society?"
Mrs. Berch's flush face faded to a chalky-white. "Why do you ask?"
Gerald asked a question in his turn. "Did Madge tell you what I came to see her about?"
"No. Madge never betrays anyone's confidence. But I heard your story."
"You heard it!" Haskins stepped back a pace in his astonishment.
"Yes!" said Mrs. Berch coldly, and slipping the case along with the coral hand into her pocket. "I was asleep on the sofa in the other room, which is, as you know, divided from the drawing-room by curtains. I woke to hear what you said about that girl and Major Rebb. In the interests of my daughter I listened."