“No,” she replied, pleased that he had asked the first question that called for a negative reply. “I thought he deserved to have the good one in his room, so I put it there, and brought the one that had been broken to this room. There it is now.”
“Thank you. Will you be so good as to examine it more closely, so that you can assure yourself that you have made no mistake in regard to it?”
Mrs. Remsen crossed the room to the vase. She raised it from the bracket, and held it in her hand for a moment. Then she exclaimed:
“Why, this is strange. This is the vase that was broken; and there is something inside of it that I never noticed before.”
“The jewels, Mrs. Remsen, by any chance?”
“No. Something white. It looks like plaster of Paris. It——”
“Permit me to see for myself,” said Nick, interrupting her, and he crossed the room with quick strides.
One glance into the vase was enough. He saw what had been done, on the instant.
He raised his eyes to Mrs. Remsen; he turned as if to speak to her; and then, as if it were done entirely by accident, he permitted the vase to fall crashing to the floor, where, weakened as it was by reason of a former fracture, it fell apart into three pieces. The diamond necklace that was Lenore Remsen’s property was exposed to view.