aight there?'

'I have one or two places to call at first.'

'I would suggest that you carry them in some other way--by fastening
them into the pocket of your dress, for instance.'

'But I am going to hold the bag in my hand and never once let it go.'

The banker slightly shook his head. 'Suppose your carriage gets
overturned: you would let it go then.'

'Perhaps so.'

'Or if you saw a child under the wheels just as you were stepping in; or
if you accidentally stumbled in getting out; or if there was a collision
on the railway--you might let it go.'

'Yes; I see I was too careless. I thank you.'

Paula removed the necklace from the bag, turned her back to the manager,
and spent several minutes in placing her treasure in her bosom, pinning
it and otherwise making it absolutely secure.

'That's it,' said the grey-haired man of caution, with evident
satisfaction. 'There is not much danger now: you are not travelling
alone?'

Paula replied that she was not alone, and went to the door. There
was one moment during which Somerset might have conveniently made his
presence known; but the juxtaposition of the bank-manager, and his own
disarranged box of securities, embarrassed him: the moment slipped by,
and she was gone.

In the meantime he had mechanically unearthed the pedigree, and, locking
up his father's chest, Somerset also took his departure at the heels of
Paula. He walked along the misty street, so deeply musing as to be quite
unconscious of the direction of his walk. What, he inquired of himself,
could she want that necklace for so suddenly? He recollected a remark
of Dare's to the effect that her appearance on a particular occasion
at Stancy Castle had been magnificent by reason of the jewels she
wore; which proved that she had retained a sufficient quantity of those
valuables at the castle for ordinary requirements. What exceptional
occasion, then, was impending on which she wished to glorify herself
beyond all previous experience? He could not guess. He was interrupted
in these conjectures by a carriage nearly passing over his toes at a
crossing in Bond Street: looking up he saw between the two windows of
the vehicle the profile of a thickly mantled bosom, on which a camellia
rose and fell. All the remainder part of the lady's person was hidden;
but he remembered that flower of convenient season as one which had
figured in the bank parlour half-an-hour earlier to-day.

Somerset hastened after the carr