"Madam," said the officer, "you must be aware that in an investigation of this nature we are compelled to put questions which we do not expect to be answered in the affirmative. Colonel Hope will understand what I mean, when I say that we call them 'feelers.' I did not expect to hear that Miss Dalrymple had been on familiar terms with your servants (though it might have been); but that question, being disposed of, will lead me to another. I suspect that some one did enter the room and make free with the bracelet, and that Miss Dalrymple must have been cognizant of it. If a common thief, or an absolute stranger, she would have been the first to give the alarm: if not on too familiar terms with the servants, she would be as little likely to screen them. So we come to the question—whom could it have been?"
"May I inquire why you suspect this of Miss Dalrymple?" coldly demanded Lady Sarah.
"Entirely from her manner; from the agitation she displays."
"Most young ladies, particularly in our class of life, would betray agitation at being brought face to face with a police-officer," urged Lady Sarah.
"My lady," he returned, "we are keen, experienced men: and we should not be fit for the office we hold if we were not. We generally do find lady witnesses betray uneasiness when first exposed to our questions, but in a very short time, often in a few moments, it wears off, and they grow gradually easy. It was not so with Miss Dalrymple. Her agitation, excessive at first, increased visibly, and it ended as you saw. I did not think it the agitation of guilt, but I did think it that of conscious fear. And look at the related facts: that she laid the bracelets there, never left them, no one came in, and yet the most valuable one vanished. We have many extraordinary tales brought before us, but not quite so extraordinary as that."
The colonel nodded approbation. Lady Sarah began to feel uncomfortable.
"I should like to know whether any one called whilst you were at dinner," mused the officer. "Can I see the man who attends to the hall-door?"
"Thomas attends to that," said the colonel, ringing the bell. "There is a side-door, but that is only for the servants and tradespeople."
"I heard Thomas say that Sir George Danvers called whilst we were at dinner," observed Lady Sarah. "No one else. And Sir George did not go upstairs."
The detective smiled. "If he had gone, my lady, it would have made the case no clearer."