He was beginning to talk wildly now, but Jerrie quieted him, and taking up the box of diamonds opened it suddenly and held it before his eyes.  In reading the letters he had not seemed to pay any attention to the diamonds, but when Jerrie said to him; ’These were mother’s.  You sent them to her from England,’ he replied, ’Yes, I remember.  I bought them in Paris with other things—­dresses, I think—­for her,’ while into his face there came a troubled look as if he were trying to think of something.

Jerrie, who could read him so well, saw the look, and, guessing at once its cause, hastened to say: 

’Father, do you remember that you gave Mrs. Tracy some diamonds like these, and that some one took them from her?  Try and think,’ she continued, as she saw the troubled look deepen on his face, and the fire beginning to kindle in his eyes.  ’It was years ago, just after a party Mrs. Tracy gave, and at which she wore them.  You were there and thought they were Gretchen’s, did you not?’

‘Ye-es,’ he answered slowly.  ’I believe I did.  What did I do with them?  Do you know?’

‘I think you put them in your private drawer.  Suppose you look and see.’

Obedient to her as a child, Arthur opened his private drawer, bringing out one thing after another, all mementoes of the old Gretchen days, and finally the diamonds, at which be looked with wonder and fear, as he said to Jerrie: 

’Did I take them?  Will they call it a steal?  I thought they were Gretchen’s.  I remember now.’

Jerrie did not tell him then of the trouble the secreting of the diamonds had brought to her and Harold, but she said: 

’No one will think it a steal, and Mrs. Tracy will be glad to get her jewels back.  May I take them to her now?’

‘Take them to her?—­no,’ Arthur said, decidedly.  ’She has another set—­I bought them for her, and she wears them all day long.  Ha, ha! diamonds in the morning, with a cotton gown;’ and he laughed immoderately at what be thought Dolly’s bad taste.  ‘Take them to her?  No!  They are yours.’

‘But I have mother’s,’ Jerrie pleaded; ‘and I cannot wear two sets.’

’Yes, you can—­one to-day, one to-morrow.  I mean you shall have seven—­one for everyday in the week.  What has Dolly to do with diamonds.  They are for ladies, and she is only a whitewashed one.’

He was very much excited, and it took all Jerrie’s tact to soothe and quiet him.

‘Father,’ she began and then he stopped short, for the sound of that name spoken by Jerrie had a mighty power over him—­’Father, listen to me a moment.’

And then she told him of the suspicions cast upon Harold, and said: 

‘You do not wish him to suffer any more?’

’Harold?  The boy who found you in the carpet-bag—­Amy’s boy!  No, never!  Where is he that I have not seen him yet?  Does he know you are my daughter?’

Jerrie had not mentioned Harold before, but she told her father now where he was, and why he had gone, and that she had written him to come home, on Maude’s account, if on no other.