"I am deeply grieved to hear it, Madame," said the countess, rising to her feet, "and I sincerely hope that you will be so fortunate as to find it again."

"I _will_ be so fortunate as to find it again--I will, I will in spite of everything," replied the Lady Clotilde excitedly.

"Pray calm yourself, Cousin Clotilde," said Le Glorieux, who was lounging in the window seat. "Try to collect yourself, else I am afraid you will go into a fit. The veins in your forehead are as big as my smallest finger, and you are quite purple in the face."

"Anything that we can do to recover your jewel for you shall be done most gladly, Madame," said the countess. "I will send servants to your apartments to search for it."

"There have been too many of your servants in my apartments already,"

retorted the other rudely. "I want no searching there; I want the culprit searched and brought to justice as quickly as possible."

"Most a.s.suredly, if we can discover who the culprit is."

"I know who it is," cried the Lady Clotilde. "It is that pale creature who came yesterday afternoon with my mulled wine, a girl with big dark eyes."

"Oh, that was Cimburga; she would not rob you of your gems, Madame. She is an orphan whose parents and grandparents died in our service. She can be thoroughly trusted. Without counting it, I should not be afraid to leave a lapful of gold in her care."

"Your confidence does but little honor to your judgment, Madame," said the injured one, "and what I have lost is of far more consequence than a lapful of gold."

Le Glorieux left his place in the window and came forward, saying, "You seem to be in a terrible state of mind, Cousin Clotilde; I have not seen you in such agitation since the news came to Burgundy of the battle of Nancy. What is the gewgaw which you seem to have valued as life itself?"

"It was the moonstone pendant. You know what it means to me to lose it."

"What, the carved lady who winks her eyes while you look at her?"

The Lady Clotilde nodded.

"This is indeed serious," remarked the jester. "If you but knew, Madame Countess, of the awful things written down to happen to the last possessor of that stone, you would be chilled to the bone. Why, death by slow strangulation would be a pleasure to some of the tortures she will suffer if she does not find it again."

"Some, in fact most, of those old traditions are mere myths," said the countess rea.s.suringly.

"You do not consider them myths when they are connected with your girdle," returned Lady Clotilde tartly.

"At any rate the article must be found if possible," said the countess.

"Are you very sure, Madame, that you had it when you came here?"

"Of course I am sure that I had it when I came here! Since we left Amboise no one has touched my valuables save myself."

"If you are sure of that, then, no one is to blame for having mislaid it save yourself," said the jester.

"It has not been mislaid; it has been stolen," cried the Lady Clotilde in the highest key of indignation. "I heard that black-eyed girl take it."

"You mean Cimburga?" asked the countess.

"If that is what you call her, yes."

"That girl would not steal," said Le Glorieux. "I watched her this morning while she was feeding the doves. They ate from her hand and perched on her shoulders, and she laughed like a little child. She is as innocent as the doves themselves."

"What do you know about it?" asked the Lady Clotilde. "There is no subject in this world about which you do not give your opinion."

"Why not, since I have plenty of opinions and all are welcome to them?"

"I tell you that black-eyed girl is the one who stole my jewel!"

"Pray calm yourself, my dear lady, and let us get at the bottom of this affair," said the countess soothingly. "You say that you heard Cimburga take the ornament. Was it in the night? If so, you may have been dreaming."

"Suppose it had been in the night, the fact that my pendant is missing would show that I was not dreaming, would it not?" asked the Lady Clotilde with some reason. "But I was not asleep; on the contrary, it was while I was drinking my hot wine with the girl waiting that my valuable disappeared." The idea that Cimburga had robbed her was now so thoroughly fixed in the lady's mind that she was almost ready to a.s.sert that she had seen the girl take it from the box. "I had sent my tiring woman to the bedchamber of Lady Ravenstein to borrow a needleful of gold thread, for the tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of my bodice was slightly frayed and needed mending. During her absence I opened my casket to select the jewels best suited to wear with my change of costume. Just then the girl entered with the wine, which I turned to drink, and I now recall that I heard distinctly a slight click behind me, as the jewels would have rattled if disturbed, and to-day my precious heirloom is missing."

"It was missing then, if somebody took it then," remarked the jester.

"But stay, can a thing be missing until somebody misses it? I shall have to think that out carefully some day when I have more time."

"Let us say nothing to Cimburga about it until we have searched," said the countess. She left the room and was absent for some time. When she returned, she said, "I went to the dormitory where all the maids sleep and searched everywhere and all through Cimburga's poor little effects, but no jewel of any kind did I find. There was a wooden cross attached to a black ribband which she wears on Sundays and fete days, but that was all in the way of a trinket that could be seen."

"Is it reasonable to suppose that a girl who could slyly filch my property would put it where it could be found?" asked the Lady Clotilde.

"Is there anything unusual in the girl's manner?" asked Lady Ravenstein, one of Marguerite's suite, who had remained perfectly quiet up to this time. "If this be her first offense she may betray herself by an agitated manner."

"She has seemed unhappy to-day," the countess admitted reluctantly. "I stopped her a moment ago in the hall leading to the servants' quarters, and I noticed that there were tears on her cheeks."

"I was sure of it!" cried the Lady Clotilde. "She was crying because she was afraid she would be discovered. I insist that she be brought before us and that she be accused of her crime."

"But let her not be accused harshly," said the little princess, who had been listening intently to all that had been said. "The maid may not be guilty; but if so, and it is her first offense, let us be merciful."

"All I ask is my moonstone pendant, your Highness," said the Lady Clotilde. "And although I think she should be severely punished for taking it from me, still she is not my servant and I have no right to insist upon her chastis.e.m.e.nt."

A page was sent to notify Cimburga that she was wanted, and she came at once, glancing about the room to see what there was for her hands to do, for she supposed that she had been sent for to perform a task.

"Let me question her, Madame," said the Lady Clotilde, and reluctantly the countess consented to oblige her guest, though she felt that she could best have managed the matter herself.

"What have you done with the locket you took from my casket yesterday afternoon?" asked the Lady Clotilde harshly.

The girl, who was pretty, and timid as a fawn of the wildwood, opened wide her eyes, and, gazing at the questioner in surprise, made no reply.

"I say," went on her tormentor in a louder tone, "what did you do with the ornament you took from my box yesterday? You slipped it out, you know, while I was sipping the wine you brought me."

"I, lady? I do not know of what you are speaking," replied Cimburga, in amazement.

"You know perfectly well of what I am speaking. You took it from my casket, I heard you, though you may think I did not, and now where is it?"

"I know nothing of it, Madame."

"Come now, that kind of a reply will not do. You have my moonstone in your possession and you must restore it to me at once."

"Madame, I am telling you the truth; I never have taken the smallest thing that did not belong to me, and of that my lady mistress will a.s.sure you."

"I can attest the truth of that statement, Cimburga," said her mistress gently, "but if you have been tempted by the sparkle of gems,--and you have a girl's love for things that glitter, even though you are in a lowly walk in life,--if you have taken the lady's ornament, as she seems certain that you have done, restore it to her. And this being your first offense, I promise you that your punishment shall be light."

"But, my mistress, how can I restore what I have not taken?" asked the girl simply.

"Talk about this being her first offense; if so, I am quite sure it will not be her last one, for she is as hardened as one old in crime," said the Lady Clotilde.