CHAPTER VII.
IVOR IS LATE FOR AN APPOINTMENT I was glad to be alone, for as I had said, I wanted to think quietly.
Maxine had taken the diamonds, but she had slipped the necklace into the bosom of her dress, pressing it down through the rather low-cut opening at the throat, and had therefore left the leather case.

I picked the thing up from the table where she had thrown it, and examined it carefully for the first time.
It had not been originally intended as a jewel-case, that was clear; and as Maxine's voice had rung unmistakably true when she denied all previous knowledge of it to the police, I judged that the diamonds had not been in it when the Duchess entrusted them to du Laurier.

He would almost certainly have described to Maxine the box or case which had been stolen from him, and if the thing pulled out from the sofa-hiding-place had recalled his description, she must have betrayed some emotion under the keen eyes of the Commissary of Police.
The case which, it seemed, I had brought to Paris, looked as if it might have been made to hold a peculiar kind of cigar, much longer than the ordinary sort.

Within, on either side, was a partition, and there was a silver clasp on which the hallmark was English.
"English silver!" I said to myself, thoughtfully.

The three men who had travelled in the carriage with me from London to Dover were all English.
Of the trio, only the nervous little fellow who had reserved the compartment for himself had found the smallest possible opportunity to steal the treaty from me, and exchange for it this red leather case containing a diamond necklace worth twenty thousand pounds.