Well, now, you may be very sure I did.
Fortunately there was no one present whom I knew, for Mrs. Welton’s was several pegs higher than any house I had ever visited before.
“What in the world am I to do?” I kept thinking. “Where am I to begin?” It was a puzzler, but I hadn’t learned the secret of patient waiting then.
After supper I strolled into the smoking-room.
There were a lot of gentlemen there, Mr. Opdyke among the rest.
I had no more than crossed the threshold than I perceived that they were talking about the jewel thief.
“He’s given you one call, hasn’t he, Welton?” asked a Mr. Dalledouze.
“Yaas,” drawled Welton. “He got away with a lot, too. But my mother has weplaced them. She don’t wear diamonds to-night, because she’s afraid to show them, but there’s ten thousand dollars’ worth in her dressing-case up-stairs, all the same.”
“Gad! I wouldn’t blow about it if I was you then,” spoke up a Mr. Partello. “Whoever the jewel thief is, be very sure he passes for a gentleman. He may be right among us now for all we know.”
Then everybody looked at me because I was a stranger, and I haven’t the least doubt that some of them put me down for the thief.