Hugh’s face was crimson, but he looked through Ralph’s pockets in a gingerly fashion.
When he finished Harry Townsend turned quietly to Barbara. “I don’t know why you wish to insult me,” he said to her, “but I am perfectly willing to have Mr. Post search me. You were the only person in the conservatory after the jewels were lost!”
Hugh started his search.
Barbara leaned sick and faint against her chair, expecting every moment to see Hugh draw the jewels forth. She kept her eyes averted while Harry turned his pockets wrong side out and finally opened his vest.
“Barbara,” said Hugh, coldly, and Bab turned around. “We owe Mr. Townsend an apology. He is certainly no thief!”
The jewels were nowhere to be found.
CHAPTER XIV—BARBARA’S SECRET
“Bab, Bab! What is the matter with you!” cried Mollie, for Barbara had thrown herself on the bed after their return from the ball, bursting into a torrent of tears.
“Oh, I don’t know,” sobbed Bab. “I must be wrong, or crazy, or something. Yet how can people doubt their own eyes?”
Mollie stopped spreading out her butterfly dress, in which she had looked so pretty at the party, and flung her arms round her sister.