She looked at herself in the glass—­the colour had left her cheeks.  She tried to laugh at her self.

“This is absurd!” she exclaimed.  “Lenora, go down and ask Macdougal to come up for a minute.  I am going to have this thing explained.  Hurry, there’s a good girl.”

“You are sure your ladyship doesn’t mind being left?” the maid asked, a little doubtfully.

“Of course not!” Ella replied, with a laugh which was not altogether natural.  “Hurry along, there’s a good girl.  I’ll drink my chocolate while you are gone, and get ready for bed, but I must see Macdougal before I undress.”

Something of her mistress’s agitation seemed to have become communicated to Lenora.  Her voice shook a little as she stepped into the elevator.

“Where are you off to, young lady?” the boy enquired.

“I want to go round to our quarters,” Lenora explained.  “Her ladyship wants to speak to Mr. Macdougal.”

“He’s gone out, sure,” the elevator boy remarked.  “Shall I wait for you, Miss Lenora?” he asked, as they descended into the hall.

“Do,” she begged.  “I sha’n’t be more than a minute or two.”

She walked quickly to the back part of the hotel and ascended in another elevator to the wing in which the servants’ quarters were situated.  Here she made her way along a corridor until she reached Macdougal’s room.  She knocked, and knocked again.  There was no answer.  She tried the door and found it was locked.  Then she returned to the elevator and descended once more to the floor upon which her mistress’s apartments were situated.  She opened the door of the suite without knocking and turned at once to the sitting-room.

“I am sorry, my lady,” she began—­

Then she stopped short.  The elevator boy, who had had a little trouble with his starting apparatus and had not as yet descended, heard the scream which broke from her lips, and a fireman in an adjacent corridor came running up almost at the same moment.  Lenora was on her knees by her mistress’s side.  Ella was still lying in the easy-chair in which she had been seated, but her head was thrown back in an unnatural fashion.  There was a red mark just across her throat.  The small table by her side had been overturned, and the chocolate was running in a little stream across the floor.  The elevator boy was the first to speak.

“Holy shakes!” he exclaimed.  “What’s happened?”

“Can’t you see?” Lenora shrieked.  “She’s fainted!  And the diamonds—­the diamonds have gone!”

The fireman was already at the telephone.  In less than a minute one of the managers from the office came running in.  Lenora was dashing water into Ella’s still, cold face.

“She’s fainted!” she shrieked.  “Fetch a doctor, some one.  The diamonds have gone!”

The young man was already at the telephone.  His hand shook as he took up the receiver.  He turned to the elevator boy.