Geraldine Bonner

“ And I saw my Daisy sitting at home all alone on her reception day, and taking dinner with me every night. No, sir! That wouldn't happen if Cassius P. Kennedy had to take those diamonds to the Thames and throw them off London Bridge in a weighted bag.
So there we were! It was a dreadful predicament; Every morning we read the papers with our hearts thumping like hammers. Every ring at the bell made us jump, and we had a deadly fear that each time the portière was lifted and a caller appeared we'd see the buttons and helmet of a policeman with a warrant of arrest concealed upon his person. ”

“ With a woman of Lady Castlecourt's lax and unbusiness-like methods, unusual conditions could be readily exacted. She is of the class of persons that, under a pressing need for money, would agree to any conditions and immediately forget them.
That she did agree to a speedy reimbursement I am positive; that once again she found herself confronted by an angry and threatening creditor; and that, in desperation and with the assistance of Sara Wight, she stole the diamonds, intending probably to pawn them, is the conclusion to which my experience and investigations have led me. ”

“ Daisy by this time was in with all kinds of push. She was what she called a “success.” Nights when we didn't go out she'd sit with me and say:
“Well, I don't really see how I'll ever be able to live in Chicago again, and Necropolis City would certainly kill me.”
This same season Lady Clara Gyves dined with us twice (it was a great step, Daisy said, and I took it for granted she knew) , and once at a reception Daisy stood right up close to the Marchioness of Castlecourt, the greatest beauty in London, and watched her drink a cup of tea. ”

“ We had read it all in the papers, and we had talked it over, and here we were with a heap of stones in a newspaper that might be the very stones!
“And next year I'd hoped to know Lady Castlecourt. I'd been sure I would!” Daisy wailed. “And now——”
“But you haven't stolen the diamonds, dearest,” I said soothingly. “You needn't get in a fever about that.”
“But, Good Heavens, I might just as well! Do you suppose there's anyone in the world fool enough to believe the story of what happened here to-night? People say it's hard to believe everything in the Bible! ”

“ I had suspicions that our cab was being followed, and under cover of the fog we slipped into the house of a Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy, Americans with great social ambitions, passing ourselves off as Major and Mrs. Thatcher.
Towards the end of the evening I took the bag of diamonds out of my dress, and leaning towards Mrs. Kennedy, asked her to give it to a mythical Amelia. Mrs. Kennedy, who I could see was unwilling to acknowledge her ignorance of “Amelia,” acquiesced. I was most relieved to be quit of the jewels, though the connection of our gang with them did not end there. ”

“ Lady Castlecourt, who was the daughter of a penniless Irish clergyman, was a young girl of great beauty brought up in the direst poverty. Her marriage with the Marquis of Castlecourt, which took place seven years ago this spring, lifted her into a position of social prominence and financial ease. Society made much of her ”

“ Daisy didn't meet her that time, but she said to me:
“Next season I'll know her, and the season after that, if we're careful, I'll dine with her. Then, Cassius P. Kennedy, we shall have arrived!”
I said “Sure!” That's what I mostly say to her, because she's mostly right. You don't often find that little woman making breaks.
It was in our third season in London, the time the middle of May, when the things occurred of which I have made mention at the beginning of my statement. ”

“ Of course that doesn't mean the same as it does in Necropolis City or even Chicago. We dine, just the same, at half-past eight, and both of us dress for dinner. We have to, Daisy says, no matter how we feel, because of the servants.
The servants in London are good servants all right, but the way you have to avoid shocking their sensitive feelings sometimes makes a free-born American rebellious. ”

“ No one was to be seen: She returned to the sitting-room, and resumed her conversation with Chawlmers.
It is the general supposition—and it would appear to be the reasonable one—that the diamonds were taken then. According to Jeffers, they were in the case at six o'clock, and on the testimony of Lord and Lady Castlecourt they were gone at half-past seven. The person towards whom suspicion points is a housemaid, going by the name of Sara Wight, who had a pass-key to the apartment.
The suspicions of Sara Wight were strengthened by her actions. ”

“ I like to think I'm an object of interest to my fellow creatures, but it's a good deal of a bother to have it on your mind that you mustn't destroy the illusions of the butler or upset the ideals of the cook. ”

“ She became known as one of the most expensively dressed women in London. It had been mentioned in certain Society journals that Lord Castlecourt's revenues had been so reduced by his wife's extravagance that he had been forced to let his town house in Grosvenor Gate, and for two seasons take rooms in Burridge's Hotel. ”

“ Afterwards she attempted to be more reticent, and adopted an air of what almost appeared indifference, surprising not only myself and Brison but Jeffers by her remarks, made with irritated impatience, that they still might “turn up somewhere.” ”

“ She made no attempt to pay these debts; the tradesmen knowing her high social position and her husband's sterling honour, did not press her, and she went on spending with an unstinted hand.
It was last year that she finally precipitated the catastrophe by the purchase of a coat of Russian sable for the sum of one thousand pounds, and a set of turquoise ornaments valued at half that amount. Each of these purchases was made in Paris. ”

“ This about covers the ground of my immediate connection with the stolen diamonds. Their subsequent disposition is a matter in which my wife is more concerned than I am. She also will be able to tell her part of the story with more literary frills than I can muster up. I'm no writing man, and all I've tried to do is to state my part of the affair briefly and clearly.
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Statement of John Burns Gilsey, private detective, especially engaged on the Castlecourt diamond robbery. ”