it makes me very sad."

"You did your best," said Rosa tearfully.

"Ah! that I did. Indeed, I was ill for weeks after, myself, through the
strain upon my mind, and the disappointment, and going so many nights
without sleep. But don't let us talk of that."

"Do you know what my darling says to me in my letter?"

"No."

"Would you like to see it?"

"Indeed I should; but I have no right."

"Every right. It is the only mark of esteem, worth anything, I can show
you."

She handed him the letter, and buried her own face in her hands.

He read it, and acted the deepest emotion.

He handed it back, without a word.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

From this time Falcon was always welcome at Kent Villa. He fascinated
everybody in the house. He renewed his acquaintance with Mr. Lusignan,
and got asked to stay a week in the house. He showed Rosa and her
father the diamonds, and, the truth must be owned, they made Rosa's eyes
sparkle for the first time this eighteen months. He insinuated rather
than declared his enormous wealth.

In reply to the old man's eager questions, as the large diamonds lay
glittering on the table, and pointed every word, he said that a few
of his Hottentots had found these for him; he had made them dig on a
diamondiferous part of his estate, just by way of testing the matter;
and this was the result; this, and a much larger stone, for which he had
received eight thousand pounds from Posno.

"If I was a young man," said Lusignan, "I would go out directly, and dig
on your estate."

"I would not let you do anything so paltry," said "le Menteur." "Why, my
dear sir, there are no fortunes to be made by grubbing for diamonds; the
fortunes are made out of the diamonds, but not in that way. Now, I
have thirty thousand acres, and am just concluding a bargain for thirty
thousand more, on which I happen to know there are diamonds in a sly
corner. Well, of my thirty thousand tried acres, a hundred only are
diamondiferous. But I have four thousand thirty-foot claims leased at
ten shillings per month. Count that up."

"Why, it is twenty-four thousand pounds a year."

"Excuse me: you must deduct a thousand a year for the expenses of
collection. But this is only one phase of the business. I have a large
inn upon each of the three great routes from the diamonds to the coast;
and these inns are supplied with the produce of my own farms. Mark the
effect of the diamonds on property. My sixty thousand acres, which