up; and when Beulah, my cat, a most intelligent animal, found
some early catnip on a bank near the house and rolled in it
in a feline ecstasy, I decided that getting back to nature was
the thing to do.

While I was dressing for dinner, Liddy rapped at the door. She
was hardly herself yet, but privately I think she was worrying
about the broken mirror and its augury, more than anything else.
When she came in she was holding something in her hand, and she
laid it on the dressing-table carefully.

"I found it in the linen hamper," she said. "It must be Mr.
Halsey's, but it seems queer how it got there."

It was the half of a link cuff-button of unique design, and I
looked at it carefully.

"Where was it? In the bottom of the hamper?" I asked.

"On the very top," she replied. "It's a mercy it didn't fall out
on the way."

When Liddy had gone I examined the fragment attentively. I had
never seen it before, and I was certain it was not Halsey's. It
was of Italian workmanship, and consisted of a mother-of-pearl
foundation, encrusted with tiny seed-pearls, strung on horsehair
to hold them. In the center was a small ruby. The trinket was
odd enough, but not intrinsically of great value. Its
interest for me lay in this: Liddy had found it lying in the top
of the hamper which had blocked the east-wing stairs.