“It’s an unpleasant thing to have to say,” he blurted out presently, “but I’m afraid you must have a thief among your servants.  Something’s been taken out of my portmanteau.  It was a little present from my mother and myself for your silver wedding.  I should have given it to you last night after dinner, only it happened to be a cream jug, and you seemed annoyed at having so many duplicates, so I felt rather awkward about giving you another.  I thought I’d get it changed for something else, and now it’s gone.”

“Did you say it was from your mother and yourself?” asked Mr. and Mrs. Peter almost in unison.  The Snatcher had been an orphan these many years.

“Yes, my mother’s at Cairo just now, and she wrote to me at Dresden to try and get you something quaint and pretty in the old silver line, and I pitched on this cream jug.”

Both the Pigeoncotes had turned deadly pale.  The mention of Dresden had thrown a sudden light on the situation.  It was Wilfrid the Attache, a very superior young man, who rarely came within their social horizon, whom they had been entertaining unawares in the supposed character of Wilfrid the Snatcher.  Lady Ernestine Pigeoncote, his mother, moved in circles which were entirely beyond their compass or ambitions, and the son would probably one day be an Ambassador.  And they had rifled and despoiled his portmanteau!  Husband and wife looked blankly and desperately at one another.  It was Mrs. Peter who arrived first at an inspiration.

“How dreadful to think there are thieves in the house!  We keep the drawing-room locked up at night, of course, but anything might be carried off while we are at breakfast.”

She rose and went out hurriedly, as though to assure herself that the drawing-room was not being stripped of its silverware, and returned a moment later, bearing a cream jug in her hands.

“There are eight cream jugs now, instead of seven,” she cried; “this one wasn’t there before.  What a curious trick of memory, Mr. Wilfrid!  You must have slipped downstairs with it last night and put it there before we locked up, and forgotten all about having done it in the morning.”

“One’s mind often plays one little tricks like that,” said Mr. Peter, with desperate heartiness.  “Only the other day I went into the town to pay a bill, and went in again next day, having clean forgotten that I’d—­”

“It is certainly the jug I bought for you,” said Wilfrid, looking closely at it; “it was in my portmanteau when I got my bath-robe out this morning, before going to my bath, and it was not there when I unlocked the portmanteau on my return.  Some one had taken it while I was away from the room.”

The Pigeoncotes had turned paler than ever.  Mrs. Peter had a final inspiration.

“Get me my smelling-salts, dear,” she said to her husband; “I think they’re in the dressing-room.”

Peter dashed out of the room with glad relief; he had lived so long during the last few minutes that a golden wedding seemed within measurable distance.