arls had come from, yet it had
evidently not occurred to her that Mrs. Marvell was about to ask her to
return them to their donor. In the light of Mrs. Heeny's unclouded gaze
the whole episode took on a different aspect, and Undine began to be
vaguely astonished at her immediate submission to her father's will. The
pearls were hers, after all!

"To be re-strung?" Mrs. Heeny placidly suggested. "Why, you'd oughter
to have it done right here before your eyes, with pearls that are worth
what these are."

As Undine listened, a new thought shaped itself. She could not continue
to wear the pearls: the idea had become intolerable. But for the first
time she saw what they might be converted into, and what they might
rescue her from; and suddenly she brought out: "Do you suppose I could
get anything for them?"

"Get anything? Why, what--"

"Anything like what they're worth, I mean. They cost a lot of money:
they came from the biggest place in Paris." Under Mrs. Heeny's
simplifying eye it was comparatively easy to make these explanations. "I
want you to try and sell them for me--I want you to do the best you can
with them. I can't do it myself--but you must swear you'll never tell a
soul," she pressed on breathlessly.

"Why, you poor child--it ain't the first time," said Mrs. Heeny, coiling
the pearls in her big palm. "It's a pity too: they're such beauties. But
you'll get others," she added, as the necklace vanished into her bag.

A few days later there appeared from the same receptacle a bundle of
banknotes considerable enough to quiet Undine's last scruples. She no
longer understood why she had hesitated. Why should she have thought it
necessary to give back the pearls to Van Degen? His obligation to her
represented far more than the relatively small sum she had been able to
realize on the necklace. She hid the money in her dress, and when Mrs.
Heeny had gone on to Mrs. Spragg's room she drew the packet out, and
counting the bills over, murmured to herself: "Now I can get away!"

Her one thought was to return to Europe; but she did not want to go
alone. The vision of her solitary figure adrift in the spring mob of
trans-Atlantic pleasure-seekers depressed and mortified her. She would
be sure to run across acquaintances, and they would infer that she was
in quest of a new opportunity, a fresh start, and would suspect her of
trying to use them for the purpose. The thought was repugnant to her
newly awakened pride, and sh