catch it. "There is ten thousand
pounds' worth, as they tell me. Perhaps you will not believe me when
I say that I should have the greatest satisfaction in the world in
throwing them out among those blue waves yonder, did I not think that
Camperdown and Son would fish them up again."

Frank spread the necklace on the table, and stood up to look at it,
while Miss Macnulty came and gazed at the jewels over his shoulder.
"And that is worth ten thousand pounds," said he.

"So people say."

"And your husband gave it you just as another man gives a trinket
that costs ten shillings!"

"Just as Lucy Morris gave you that ring."

He smiled, but took no other notice of the accusation. "I am so poor
a man," said he, "that this string of stones, which you throw about
the room like a child's toy, would be the making of me."

"Take it and be made," said Lizzie.

"It seems an awful thing to me to have so much value in my hands,"
said Miss Macnulty, who had lifted the necklace off the table. "It
would buy an estate; wouldn't it?"

"It would buy the honourable estate of matrimony if it belonged to
many women," said Lizzie,--"but it hasn't had just that effect with
me;--has it, Frank?"

"You haven't used it with that view yet."

"Will you have it, Frank?" she said. "Take it with all its
encumbrances and weight of cares. Take it with all the burthen of
Messrs. Camperdown's lawsuits upon it. You shall be as welcome to it
as flowers were ever welcomed in May."

"The encumbrances are too heavy," said Frank.

"You prefer a little ring."

"Very much."

"I don't doubt but you're right," said Lizzie. "Who fears to rise
will hardly get a fall. But there they are for you to look at, and
there they shall remain for the rest of the evening." So saying, she
clasped the string round Miss Macnulty's throat. "How do you feel,
Julia, with an estate upon your neck? Five hundred acres at twenty
pounds an acre. Let us call it five hundred pounds a year. That's
about it." Miss Macnulty looked as though she did not like it, but
she stood for a time bearing the precious burthen, while Frank
explained to his cousin that she could hardly buy land to pay her
five per cent. They were then taken off and left lying on the table
till Lady Eustace took them with her as she went to bed. "I do feel
so like some naughty person in the 'Arabian Nights,'" she said, "who
has got some great treasure that always brings him into trouble; but
he can't get rid