“This is Police Headquarters,” went on the voice crisply, and Vera started. “Inspector North speaking. Have you lost anything, Miss Deane?”
“I? No.”
“Are you sure you have not lost your handbag?”
“My handbag!” Vera’s raised accents testified to her astonishment. “No, certainly not.”
“Quite sure, Miss Deane?” insisted the inspector.
“Yes; but as a matter of form I’ll run upstairs and look. Hold the telephone, please.” And Vera dashed up to her room and unlocked her trunk; there lay her handbag, and pulling it open she found its contents intact.
She was out of breath when she again reached the telephone, and had to pause a second before speaking to the inspector.
“My handbag is upstairs, safe and sound,” she called.
“Thank you.” The inspector cleared his voice. “I called you up, Miss Deane, because we found a handbag in a Mt. Pleasant car yesterday afternoon containing your visiting-card, and we located you through the Central Directory for Graduate Nurses.”
“My visiting-card?” echoed Vera, astonished. “Are you sure it was mine?”