"Much mischief may be done in a week, and this is the beginning of it,"
muttered Treherne, as he raised himself to look under the bronze vase
for the note. It was gone!




Chapter III


WHO WAS IT?

Who had taken it? This question tormented Treherne all that sleepless
night. He suspected three persons, for only these had approached the
fire after the note was hidden. He had kept his eye on it, he thought,
till the stir of breaking up. In that moment it must have been removed
by the major, Frank Annon, or my lady; Sir Jasper was out of the
question, for he never touched an ornament in the drawing room since he
had awkwardly demolished a whole _etagere_ of costly trifles, to
his mother's and sister's great grief. The major evidently suspected
something, Annon was jealous, and my lady would be glad of a pretext to
remove her daughter from his reach. Trusting to his skill in reading
faces, he waited impatiently for morning, resolving to say nothing to
anyone but Mrs. Snowdon, and from her merely to inquire what the note
contained.

Treherne usually was invisible till lunch, often till dinner; therefore,
fearing to excite suspicion by unwonted activity, he did not appear till
noon. The mailbag had just been opened, and everyone was busy over their
letters, but all looked up to exchange a word with the newcomer, and