"What, the Von Taer pearls?" cried one.

"The Von Taer pearls," said Diana, as if dazed by her misfortune.

"And you've lost them, dear?"

"They're lost!" she echoed.

Well, there was excitement then, you may be sure. One man hurried to
notify the door-keeper and the private detective employed oh all such
occasions, while others hastily searched the booth--of course in vain.
Diana seemed distracted and the news spread quickly through the
assemblage.

"Have you left this booth at all?" asked a quiet voice, that of the
official whose business it was to investigate.

"I--I merely walked over to the floral booth opposite, and exchanged a
word with Miss Merrick, and the others there," she explained.

The search was resumed, and Charlie Mershone sauntered over.

"What's this, Di? Lost the big pearls, I hear," he said.

She took him aside and whispered something to him. He nodded and
returned at once to the flower booth, around which a crowd of searchers
now gathered, much to the annoyance of Louise and her cousins.

"It's all foolishness, you know," said Uncle John, to the Major,
confidentially. "If the girl really dropped her pearls some one has