aste of his fair customer.

"Oh! the duck."

"The identical article, the ideal lady's watch," said Tresco,
unctuously.

"And now the chain," said Rachel.

Benjamin took a dozen lady's watch-guards from a blue velvet pad, and
handed them to the girl.

The gold clerk of the Kangaroo Bank stood by, and watched, as Rachel
held the dainty chains, one by one, across her bust.

"Quite right, sir, quite right," remarked the goldsmith. "When a
gentleman makes a present to a lady, let him do the thing handsome.
Them's my sentiments."

The girl looked at Tresco, and laughed.

"This is to be booked to my father," she said. "There, that's the one I
like best." She held out an elaborate chain, with a round bauble hanging
from it. "If you had to depend on Mr. Zahn, here, you'd have to wait
till the cows came home."

Benjamin was wrapping up the watch in a quantity of tissue paper.

"No, no. I'll wear it," exclaimed Rachel. One dainty hand stretched
forward and took the watch, while the other held the chain. "There," she
said, as she handed the precious purchase to her sweetheart, "fix it
on."

She threw her head back, laid her hand lightly on the young man's arm,
and allowed him to tuck the watch into her bodice and fasten the chain
around her neck.

He lingered long over the process.

"Yes, I would," said the voice from behind the counter. "I most
certainly should give her one on the cheek, as a reward. Don't mind me;
I've done it myself when I was young, before I lost my looks."

The young man stepped back, and Rachel, after the manner of a pouter
pigeon, nestled her chin on her breast, in her endeavour to see how the
watch looked in wearing. Then she tapped the floor with the toe of her
shoe indignantly, and said, looking straight at the goldsmith: "You lost
your looks? What a find they must have been for the man who picked them
up. If I were you, I'd advertise for them, and offer a handsome a
reward--they must be valuable."

"Most certainly, they were," replied Benjamin, his smile spreading
across his broad countenance, "they were the talk of all my lady friends
and the envy of my rivals."

"I expect it was the rivals that spoilt them. But don't cry over spilt
milk, old gentleman."

"Certainly not, most decidedly not--there are compensations. The price
of the watch and chain is L33."

"Never mind the price. _I_ don't want to know the price--that'll
interest my Dad. Send the account to him, and make yoursel