"Yes."
"But—why—what is it doing there?" gasped the astonished girl.
"That is what we should like to know. No one had access to your kit except yourself. The box was locked and the key hung where you placed it when you last had occasion to close the box."
"Yes, yes, but——"
"We also found flakes of soap scattered about on the floor in the kitchen. I slipped on a shaving of it and nearly fell just now when I visited the kitchen. Did you have any soap in your kit?"
"Certainly not, Mrs. Livingston."
"Then how did it come to be there just now when I opened the box?"
"Oh, I don't know," answered Harriet despairingly. "But surely, Mrs. Livingston, you do not accuse me of anything so dreadful as mixing soap with the consommé? Oh, you don't mean that; you can't mean it?"
"While I am not by any means accusing you, the facts on the face of the affair speak for themselves, and——"
The Chief Guardian was interrupted by the sudden springing to her feet of Crazy Jane. Her face was flushed; her hair was disarranged her arms were raised above her head.