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"No; that is the one thing it could not have been," said Hanaud

"Look round the room Was there ever a room better tended? Find me

a little pile of dust in any one corner if you can! It is all as

clean as a plate Every , this

room has been swept and polished The paper ritten and torn

up yesterday"

He enclosed the card in an envelope as he spoke, and placed it in

his pocket Then he rose and crossed again to the settee He stood

at the side of it, with his hands clutching the lapels of his coat

and his face gravely troubled After a few moments of silence for

himself, of suspense for all the others atched him, he

stooped suddenly Slowly, and with extraordinary care, he pushed

his hands under the head-cushion and lifted it up gently, so that

the indentations of its surface ht of the openThe cushion was

covered with silk, and as he held it to the sunlight all could see

a slass from his pocket and bent his head

over the cushion But at that h he had been,

the doelled up within the cushion, the folds and indentations

disappeared, the silk covering was stretched sically "What have you done?"

Hanaud's face flushed He had been guilty of a clumsiness--even

he

Mr Ricardo took up the tale

"Yes," he exclaimed, "what have you done?"

Hanaud looked at Ricardo in amazement at his audacity