‘Certainly not,’ was the reassuring reply, ’Don’t you know how many murders are committed and the murderer is not hung, because they say he is crazy?’

In a moment the cloud lifted from Jerry’s face, which grew so bright that Arthur noticed the change, and said to her: 

’You are better now, I see, and I must go before I undo it all.  Good-bye, and never say diamonds to me again; it gets me all in a—­m a—­well, a French pickle—­mixed, you know.’

He kissed her tenderly, and promising to take her for a drive as soon as she was able, went out and left her alone, wondering why it was that his having given the diamonds to his sister-in-law had failed in its effect upon her, and upon himself, too.

For a long time after he was gone Jerry lay thinking with her eyes closed, so that if Harold or her grandmother came in they would think her asleep.  Mr. Arthur was certainly crazy at times—­very crazy.  She could swear to that, and so could many others.  And if a crazy man was not responsible for his acts, then he was not, and the law would not touch him; but with regard to the accessory, she was not sure.  If that individual were not crazy, why, then he or she might be punished; and as the taste she had had of bread and water, and hard boards, in the shape of the floor, was not very satisfactory, and as Mrs. Tracy had other diamonds in the place of the lost ones, she finally determined to keep her own counsel and never tell what she had heard Arthur say that morning when the theft was discovered and he had talked so fast in German to her and to himself.  If she had known where the diamonds were she might have managed to return them to their owner.  But she did not know, and her better course was to keep quiet, hoping that in time Mr. Arthur himself would remember and make restitution; for that he had forgotten and was sincere in saying that he knew nothing of them she was certain, and her faith in him, which for a little time had been shaken, was restored.

With this load lifted from her mind Jerry’s recovery was rapid, and when the autumnal suns were just beginning to tinge the woodbine on the Tramp House and the maples in the park woods with scarlet, she took her accustomed seat in Arthur’s room and commenced her lessons again with Maude, who had missed her sadly and who would have gone to see her every day during her sickness if her mother had permitted it.

CHAPTER XXIII.

ARTHUR’S LETTER.

Two weeks had passed since Jerry’s return to her lessons, and people had ceased to talk of the missing diamonds, although the offered reward of $500 was still in the weekly papers, and a detective still had the matter in charge, without, however, achieving the slightest success.  No one had ever been suspected, and the thief, whoever he was, must have been an expert, and managed the affair with the most consummate skill.  Now that she had another set, Mrs. Tracy was content, and peace and quiet reigned in the household, except so far as Arthur was concerned.  He was restless and nervous, and given to fits of abstraction, which sometimes made him forget the two little girls, one of whom watched him narrowly; and once when they were alone and he seemed unusually absorbed in thought, she asked him if he were trying to think of something.