Then again we observed
little beads floating on the surface," continued Mrs. Livingston. "While
attractive to look at these were very disagreeable to the taste for they
were soap bubbles. However, an entirely different complexion has been
placed on the matter since my examination of your box before me on the
table. Miss Burrell, I find in this box a small piece of castile soap from
which some shavings have been left in the box and on the paring knife with
which the soap was shaved off."
"Soap in my kit?" cried Harriet, rising slowly to her feet.
"Yes."
"But--why--what is it doing there?" gasped the astonished girl.
"That is what we should like to know. No one had access to your kit except
yourself. The box was locked and the key hung where you placed it when you
last had occasion to close the box."
"Yes, yes, but----"
"We also found flakes of soap scattered about on the floor in the kitchen.
I slipped on a shaving of it and nearly fell just now when I visited the
kitchen. Did you have any soap in your kit?"
"Certainly not, Mrs. Livingston."
"Then how did it come to be there just now when I opened the box?"
"Oh, I don't know," answered Harriet despairingly. "But surely, Mrs.
Livingston, you do not accuse me of anything so dreadful as mixing soap
with the consomme? Oh, you don't mean that; you can't mean it?"
"While I am not by any means accusing you, the facts on the face of the
affair speak for themselves, and----"
The Chief Guardian was interrupted by the sudden springing to her feet of
Crazy Jane.
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