nk.'"

"And so you took the shares?" said Hankes, sighing; then added, "But let
me see,--at what rate did you buy?"

"I am ashamed to confess, I forget; but I know the shares were high?"

"After the Ossory run," muttered he,--"that was about September. Shares
were then something like one hundred and twenty-seven and a quarter;
higher afterwards; higher the whole month of November; shaky towards
the end of the year; very shaky, indeed, in January. No, no," said he to
himself, "Dunn ought not to have done it."

"I perceive," said she, half smiling, "Mr. Hankes opines that the money
had been better in the bank."

"After all," continued he, not heeding her remark, "Dunn could n't do
anything else. You own, yourself, that if he had attempted to dissuade
you, you would immediately have taken alarm; you 'd have said, 'This
is all a sham. All these people will find themselves "let in" some fine
morning;' and as Dunn could very readily make good your few hundred
pounds, why, he was perfectly justified in the advice he gave."

"Not when his counsel had the effect of influencing mine," said she,
quickly; "not when it served to make me a perfidious example to others.
No, no, Mr. Hankes; if this scheme be not an honest and an upright one,
I accept no partnership in its details."

"I am only putting a case, remember," said Hankes, hurriedly,--"a
possible, but most improbable case. I am supposing that a scheme with
the finest prospectus, the best list of directors, the most respectable
referees in the empire, to be--what shall I say?--to be sickly,--yes,
sickly,--in want of a little tonic treatment, generous diet, and so
forth."

"You 'll have to follow me here, Mr. Hankes," broke in Sybella; "the
pathway round this cliff only admits one at a time. Keep close to the
rock, and if your head be not steady, don't look down."

"Good heavens! we are not going round that precipice!" cried Hankes, in
a voice of the wildest terror.

"My servant will lead your horse, if you prefer it," said she, without
answering his question; "and mind your footing, for the moss is often
slippery with the spray."

Sybella made a signal with her whip to the groom, who was now close
behind, and then, without awaiting for more, moved on. Hankes watched
her as she descended the little slope to the base of a large rock,
around which the path wound itself on the very verge of an immense
precipice. Even from where he now stood the sea could be seen surgi