Marie Antoinette. Papa always believed they were looted
at the sack of the Tuileries in the Revolution."

Nora sat stupefied. How strange that a girl like Connie should possess
such things!--and others, nothing!

"Are they worth a great deal of money?"

"Oh, yes, thousands," said Connie, still looking at herself, in mingled
vanity and discomfort. "That's why I oughtn't to wear them. But I shall
wear them!" She straightened her tall figure imperiously. "After all
they were mamma's. I didn't give them myself."

* * * * *

Popular as the Marmion ball had been, the Magdalen ball on the following
night was really the event of the week. The beauty of its cloistered
quadrangle, its river walks, its President's garden, could not be
rivalled elsewhere; and Magdalen men were both rich and lavish, so that
the illuminations easily surpassed the more frugal efforts of other
colleges. The midsummer weather still held out, and for all the young
creatures, plain and pretty, in their best dancing frocks, whom their
brothers and cousins and friends were entertaining, this particular ball
struck the top note of the week's romance.

"Who is that girl in black!" said his partner to Douglas Falloden, as
they paused to take breath after the first round of waltzing. "And--good
heavens, what pearls! Oh, they must be sham. Who is she?"

Falloden looked round, while fanning his partner. But there was no need
to look. From the moment she entered the room, he had been aware of
every movement of the girl in black.

"I suppose you mean Lady Constance Bledlow."

The lady beside him raised her eyebrows in excited surprise.

"Then they're not sham! But how ridiculous that an unmarried girl should
wear them! Yes they are--the Risborough pearls! I saw them once, before
I married, on Lady Risborough, at a gorgeous party at the Palazzo
Farnese. Well, I hope that girl's got a trustworthy maid!"

"I dare say Lady Constance values them most because they belonged to her
mother!" said Falloden drily.

The lady sitting beside him laughed, and tapped him on the arm.

"Sentimentalist! Don't you know that girls nowadays--babes in the
schoolroom--know the value of everything? Who is she staying with?"

Falloden briefly explained and tried to change the subject. But Mrs.
Glendower could not be persuaded to leave it. She was one of the
reigning beauties of the moment, well acquainted with the Falloden
family, and accustom