“No, it’s a hat,” said Cornelia shortly.  “A sixty-dollar hat.  I wish I’d kept it now, and then she wouldn’t have dared.  It had two beautiful willow ostrich plumes on it, but mother didn’t think it was becoming.  She wanted some color about it instead of all black.  I left it in my room, and charged Norah to see that the man got it when he called, and now the man comes and says he wants the hat, and it is gone!  Norah insists that when she last saw it, it was in my room.  But of course that’s absurd, for there was nobody else to take it but Thompson, and he’s been in the family for so long.”

“Nonsense!” said her brother sharply, dropping his fruit knife in his plate with a rattle that made the young woman jump.  “Cornelia, I’m ashamed of you, thinking that poor, innocent girl has stolen your hat.  Why, she wouldn’t steal a pin, I am sure.  You can tell she’s honest by looking into her eyes.  Girls with blue eyes like that don’t lie and steal.”

“Really!” Cornelia remarked haughtily.  “You seem to know a great deal about her eyes.  You may feel differently when I find the hat in her possession.”

“Cornelia,” interrupted Tryon, quite beside himself, “don’t think of such a thing as speaking to that poor girl about that hat.  I know she hasn’t stolen it.  The hat will probably be found, and then how will you feel?”

“But I tell you the hat cannot be found!” said the exasperated sister.  “And I shall just have to pay for a hat that I can never wear.”

“Mother, I appeal to you,” said the son earnestly.  “Don’t allow Cornelia to speak of the hat to the girl.  I wouldn’t have such an injustice done in our house.  The hat will turn up soon if you just go about the matter calmly.  You’ll find it quite naturally and unexpectedly, perhaps.  Any way, if you don’t, I’ll pay for the hat, rather than have the girl suspected.”

“But, Tryon,” protested his mother, “if she isn’t honest, you know we wouldn’t want her about.”

“Honest, Mother?  She’s as honest as the day is long.  I am certain of that.”

The mother rose reluctantly.

“Well, we might let it go another day,” she consented.  Then, looking up at the sky, she added, “I wonder if it is going to rain.  I have a Reciprocity meeting on for to-day, and I’m a delegate to some little unheard-of place.  It usually does rain when one goes into the country, I’ve noticed.”

She went into the hall, and presently returned with a distressed look upon her face.

“Tryon, I’m afraid you’re wrong,” she said.  “Now my rain-coat is missing.  My new rain-coat!  I hung it up in the hall-closet with my own hands, after it came from the store.  I really think something ought to be done!”

“There!  I hope you see!” said Cornelia severely.  “I think it’s high time something was done.  I shall ’phone for a detective at once!”

“Cornelia, you’ll do nothing of the kind,” her brother protested, now thoroughly aroused.  “I’ll agree to pay for the hat and the rain-coat if they are not forthcoming before a fortnight passes, but you simply shall not ruin that poor girl’s reputation.  I insist, Mother, that you put a stop to such rash proceedings.  I’ll make myself personally responsible for that girl’s honesty.”