"The lost necklace was exactly like this," she said.
"Had you two?" I asked in surprise.
She smiled a little. "These are artificial."
I suppose I looked like the fool I felt.
"A very natural mistake," she said. "Some time ago my jeweler advised me not to wear the real pearls on the stage, so I had this made by Roberts. The resemblance was so perfect that I could scarcely tell the difference myself. It was only by wearing them that I could be sure."
"By wearing them?" I repeated.
"The warmth of my body caused the real pearls to gleam with a deeper lustre."
"Lucky pearls!" I thought.
"They almost seemed alive," she went on with a kind of passionate regret. "The artificial pearls show no change, of course. And they have to be renewed in a short time."
I asked for the circumstances of the robbery.