the
last girl out of the last church, and the night was beginning to fall.

"What! already?" said Mrs. Roundhand; "there is a lobster coming up,--a
trifling refreshment; not what he's accustomed to, but--"

I am sorry to say I nearly said, "D--- the lobster!" as Roundhand went
and whispered to her that I was ill.

"Ay," said Gus, looking very knowing. "Recollect, Mrs. R., that he was
_at the West End_ on Thursday, asked to dine, ma'am, with the tip-top
nobs. Chaps don't dine at the West End for nothing, do they, R.? If you
play at _bowls_, you know--"

"You must look out for _rubbers_," said Roundhand, as quick as thought.

"Not in my house of a Sunday," said Mrs. R., looking very fierce and
angry. "Not a card shall be touched here. Are we in a Protestant land,
sir? in a Christian country?"

"My dear, you don't understand. We were not talking of rubbers of
whist."

"There shall be _no_ game at all in the house of a Sabbath eve," said
Mrs. Roundhand; and out she flounced from the room, without ever so much
as wishing us good-night.

"Do stay," said the husband, looking very much frightened,--"do stay. She
won't come back while you're here; and I do wish you'd stay so."

But we wouldn't: and when we reached Salisbury Square, I gave Gus a
lecture about spending his Sundays idly; and read out one of Blair's
sermons before we went to bed. As I turned over in bed, I could not help
thinking about the luck the pin had brought me; and it was not over yet,
as you will see in the next chapter.

CHAPTER V

HOW THE DIAMOND INTRODUCES HIM TO A STILL MORE FASHIONABLE PLACE

To tell the truth, though, about the pin, although I mentioned it almost
the last thing in the previous chapter, I assure you it was by no means
the last thing in my thoughts. It had come home from Mr. Polonius's, as
I said, on Saturday night; and Gus and I happened to be out enjoying
ourselves, half-price, at Sadler's Wells; and perhaps we took a little
refreshment on our way back: but that has nothing to do with my story.

On the table, however, was the little box from the jeweller's; and when I
took it out,--_my_, how the diamond did twinkle and glitter by the light
of our one candle!

"I'm sure it would light up the room of itself," says Gus. "I've read
they do in--in history."

It was in the history of Cogia Hassan Alhabbal, in the "Arabian Nights,"
as I knew very well. But we put the candle out, nevertheless, to try.

"