’It would be like him to go without his neck-tie and wear his every-day boots,’ she thought.

But she found him as faultlessly gotten up as he well could be in his old-fashioned evening dress, which sat rather loosely upon him, for he had grown thinner with each succeeding year.

Jerry thought him splendid, and watched him admiringly as if he left the room and started for the parlors, with her last injunction ringing in her ears: 

’Not a word out of your head about Gretchen, but try and act as if you were not crazy.’

‘I’ll do it, Cherry.  Don’t you worry,’ he said to her, with a little reassuring nod, as he descended the stairs.

And he kept his promise well.  There was no word out of his head about Gretchen, and no one ignorant of the fact would ever have suspected that his mind was unsettled as he moved among the guests, talking to one another with that pleasant, courtly manner so natural to him.  A very close observer, however, might have seen his eyes dilate and even flash with some sudden emotion when his brother’s wife passed him and her brilliant diamonds, his gift, sparkled in the bright gaslight.  The setting was rather peculiar, but Mrs. Tracy liked it for the peculiarity, and had never had it changed.  She was very proud of her diamonds, they were so large and clear, and she had the satisfaction of knowing that there were no finer, if as fine, in town.  She seemed to know, too, just in what light to place herself in order to show them to the best advantage, and at times the gleams of fire from them were wonderful, and once Arthur put his hand before his eyes as she passed him, and muttering something to himself moved quickly to another part of the room.  This was late in the evening, and soon after he excused himself to those around him, saying it was not often that he dissipated like this, and as he was growing tired he must say good-night.

The next morning Charles found him looking very pale and worn, with a bad pain in his head.  He had rested badly, he said, and would have his coffee in bed, after which Charles was to leave him alone and not come back until he rang for him, as he might possibly fall asleep.

It was very late that morning when the family breakfasted, and as they lingered around the table, discussing the events of the previous night, it was after eleven o’clock when at last Mrs. Tracy went up to her room.

As she ascended the stairs to the upper hall, she caught a glimpse of Harold disappearing through a door at the lower end of the hall, evidently with the intention of going down the back stairway and making his exit from the house by the rear door, rather than the front.  Mrs. Tracy knew that he was sometimes sent by his grandmother on some errand to Arthur, and giving no further thought to the matter went on to her own room, which her maid had put in order.  All the paraphernalia of last night’s toilet were put away, diamonds and all.  Contrary to her usual custom, for she was very careful of her diamonds, and very much afraid they would be stolen, she had left them in their box on her dressing bureau.  But they were not there now.  Sarah, who knew where she kept them, had put them away, of course, and she gave them no more thought until three days later, when she received an invitation to a lunch party at Brier Hill.