that my suggestion pleases you?"

Ella glanced over her shoulder at the two servants who were standing
discreetly in the background. Her eyes rested upon the pale,
expressionless face of the man who during the last few years had enjoyed
her father's absolute confidence. Like many others of his class, there
seemed to be so little upon which to comment in his appearance, so little
room for surmise or analysis in his quiet, negative features, his
studiously low voice, his unexceptionable deportment. Yet for a moment a
queer sense of apprehension troubled her. Was it true, she wondered, that
she did not like the man? She banished the thought almost as soon as it
was conceived. The very idea was absurd! His manner towards her had always
been perfectly respectful. He seemed equally devoid of sex or character.
She withdrew her gaze and turned once more towards her father.

"Do you think that you can really spare him, daddy," she asked, "and that
it will be necessary?"

"Not altogether necessary, I dare say," Lord Ashleigh admitted. "On the
other hand, I feel sure that you will find him a comfort, and it would be
rather a relief to me to know that there is some one in touch with you all
the time in whom I place absolute confidence. I dare say I shall be very
glad to see him back again at the end of the year, but that is neither
here nor there. Mr. Delarey has sent me the name of some bankers in New
York who will honour your cheques for whatever money you may require."

"You are spoiling me, daddy," Ella sighed.

Lord Ashleigh smiled. His hand had disappeared into the pocket of his
dinner-coat.

"If you think so now," he remarked, "I do not know what you will say to me
presently. What I am doing now, Ella, I am doing with your mother's
sanction, and you must associate her with the gift which I am going to
place in your keeping."

The hand was slowly withdrawn from his pocket. He laid upon the table a
very familiar morocco case, stamped with a coronet. Even before he touched
the spring and the top flew open, Ella knew what was coming.

"Our diamonds!" she exclaimed. "The Ashleigh diamonds!"

The necklace lay exposed to view, the wonderful stones flashing in the
subdued light. Ella gazed at it, speechless.

"In New York," Lord Ashleigh continued, "it is the custom to wear
jewellery in public more, even, than in this country. The family pearls,
which I myself should have thought more suitable, went, as you know, to
your