Tom's presentation of the necklace we
have got beyond the period which our story is presumed to have
reached. Tom was in durance during the Christmas week, but we must go
back to the promise which had been made by her uncle, Sir Thomas, to
Lucy about six weeks before that time. The promise had extended only
to an undertaking on the part of Sir Thomas to see Isadore Hamel if
he would call at the house in Lombard Street at a certain hour on a
certain day. Lucy was overwhelmed with gratitude when the promise was
made. A few moments previously she had been indignant because her
uncle had appeared to speak of her and her lover as two beggars,--but
Sir Thomas had explained and in some sort apologised, and then had
come the promise which to Lucy seemed to contain an assurance of
effectual aid. Sir Thomas would not have asked to see the lover had
he intended to be hostile to the lover. Something would be done to
solve the difficulty which had seemed to Lucy to be so grave. She
would not any longer be made to think that she should give up either
her lover or her home under her uncle's roof. This had been terribly
distressing to her because she had been well aware that on leaving
her uncle's house she could be taken in only by her lover, to whom an
immediate marriage would be ruinous. And yet she could not undertake
to give up her lover. Therefore her uncle's promise had made her very
happy, and she forgave the ungenerous allusion to the two beggars.

The letter was written to Isadore in high spirits. "I do not know
what Uncle Tom intends, but he means to be kind. Of course you must
go to him, and if I were you I would tell him everything about
everything. He is not strict and hard like Aunt Emmeline. She means
to be good too, but she is sometimes so very hard. I am happier
now because I think something will be done to relieve you from the
terrible weight which I am to you. I sometimes wish that you had
never come to me in Kensington Gardens, because I have become such a
burden to you."

There was much more in which Lucy no doubt went on to declare that,
burden as she was, she intended to be persistent. Hamel, when he
received this letter, was resolved to keep the appointment made for
him, but his hopes were not very high. He had been angry with Lady
Tringle,--in the first place, because of her treatment of himself at
Glenbogie, and then much more strongly, because she had been cruel
to Lucy. Nor did he conceive himself to be u