and said in a strangely altered voice, "Tell me, Fan, did you take some
jewels from my dressing-table--a brooch and three rings, and some other
things?"

"I took nothing except what you--what the telegram said, and Rosie put
the things in a bag and got the cab for me."

For a minute or two Miss Starbrow sat in silence, and then got up and
said:

"Come, Fan."

"Where?"

"Home with me to Dawson Place." Then she added, "Must I tell you again
that I have done nothing to harm you? Do you not understand that it was
all a wicked horrible plot to get you away and destroy you, that the
telegram was a forgery, that the jewels were taken to make it appear that
you had stolen them and run away during my absence from the house?"

Fan rose and followed her, and when they got to the Bayswater Road Miss
Starbrow called a cab.

"Where is your bag--where did you sleep last night?" she asked; and when
Fan had told her she said, "Tell the man to drive us there," and got in.

In a few minutes they arrived at her lodging, and Fan got out and went in
to get her bag. She did not owe anything for rent, having paid in
advance, but she gave the woman a shilling.