"Ah, that's the mystery I am going to tell you about," said Miss
Pompret. "It isn't a very big story, and I won't keep you long. It isn't
often I get a chance to tell it, so you must forgive an old lady for
keeping you from your play," and again she smiled, in rather a sad
fashion, at Nan and Bert.

"Oh, we like it here!" exclaimed Nan quickly.

"It's lots of fun!" added Bert. "I like to hear about a mystery."

"Well," began Miss Pompret, "as I told you, this set of china has been
in our family over a hundred years. It was made in England, and each
piece has the mark of the man who made it. See, this is what I mean."

She turned over one of the cups and showed the Bobbsey twins where, on
the bottom, there was the stamp, in blue, of some animal in a circle of
gold.

"That is the mark of the Waredon factory, where this china was made,"
went on Miss Pompret. "Only china made by Mr. Waredon can have this mark
on it."

"It looks like our dog Snap," said Bert.

"Oh, no!" laughed Miss Pompret. "That is supposed to be the British
lion. Mr. Waredon took that as a trade-mark, and at the top of the
golden circle, with the blue lion inside, you can see the letter 'J'
while at the bottom is the letter 'W.' They stand for the name Jonathan
Waredon, in whose English factory the china was made. Each piece has
this mark on it, and no other make of china in the world can be