have such things."
Poor Charlotte smiled. "By inheritance."
"Family jewels?"
"They belonged to my aunt, who died some months
ago. She was on the stage a few years in early life, and
these are a part of her trappings."
"She left them to you?"
"No; my cousin, her stepson, who naturally has no use
for them, gave them to me for remembrance of her. She
was a dear kind thing, always so nice to me, and I was
fond of her."
Mrs. Guy had listened with frank interest. "But it's HE
who must be a dear kind thing!"
Charlotte wondered. "You think so?"
"Is HE," her friend went on, "also 'always so nice' to
you?"
The girl, at this, face to face there with the brilliant visitor
in the deserted breakfast-room, took a deeper sounding.
"What is it?"
"Don't you know?"
Something came over her. "The pearls--?" But the
question fainted on her lips.
16
HYLAND
