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"No, Miss Van Arsdale, you would not work more intelligently, and
you know it. But you have the natural curiosity of one whose very
heart is bound up in this business. I could deny you what you ask
but I won't, for I want you to work with quiet confidence, which
you would not do if your mind were taken up with doubts and
questions. Miss Van Arsdale, one surmise of yours was correct. A
man was sent that night to the Ramsdell house with a note from
Miss Grey. We know this because he boasted of it to one of the
bell-boys before he went out, saying that he was going to have a
glimpse of one of the swellest parties of the season. It is also
true that this man was Mr. Grey's valet, an old servant who came
over with him from England. But what adds weight to all this and
makes us regard the whole affair with suspicion, is the
additional fact that this man received his dismissal the
following morning and has not been seen since by any one we could
reach. This looks bad to begin with, like the suppression of
evidence, you know. Then Mr. Grey has not been the same man since
that night. He is full of care and this care is not entirely in
connection with his daughter, who is doing very well and bids
fair to be up in a few days. But all this would be nothing if we
had not received advices from England which prove that Mr. Grey's
visit here has an element of mystery in it. There was every
reason for his remaining in his own country, where a political
crisis is approaching, yet he crossed the water, bringing his
sickly daughter with him. The explanation as volunteered by one
who knew him well was this: That only his desire to see or
acquire some precious object for his collection could have taken
him across the ocean at this time, nothing else rivaling his
interest in governmental affairs. Still this would be nothing if
a stiletto similar to the one employed in this crime had not once
formed part of a collection of curios belonging to a cousin of
his whom he often visited. This stiletto has been missing for
some time, stolen, as the owner declared, by some unknown person.
All this looks bad enough, but when I tell you that a week before
the fatal ball at Mr. Ramsdell's, Mr. Grey made a tour of the
jewelers on Broadway and, with the pretext of buying a diamond
for his daughter, entered into a talk about famous stones, ending
always with some question about the Fairbrother gem, you will see
that his interest in that stone is established and that it only
remains for us to discover if that interest is a guilty one. I
can not believe this possible, but you have our leave to make
your experiment and see. Only do not count too much on his
superstition. If he is the deep-dyed criminal you imagine, the
cry which startled us all at a certain critical instant was
raised by himself and for the purpose you suggested. None of the
sensitiveness often shown by a man who has been surprised into
crime will be his. Relying on his reputation and the prestige of
his great name, he will, if he thinks himself under fire, face
every shock unmoved."
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