on the
scene except the banker and herself. The former called back the clerk,
and two other porters having been summoned they disappeared to get
whatever she required.

Somerset, somewhat excited, sat wondering what could have brought Paula
to London at this juncture, and was in some doubt if the occasion were
a suitable one for revealing himself, her errand to her banker being
possibly of a very private nature. Nothing helped him to a decision.
Paula never once turned her head, and the progress of time was marked
only by the murmurs of the two lawyers, and the ceaseless clash of
gold and rattle of scales from the outer room, where the busy heads
of cashiers could be seen through the partition moving about under the
globes of the gas-lamps.

Footsteps were heard upon the cellar-steps, and the three men previously
sent below staggered from the doorway, bearing a huge safe which nearly
broke them down. Somerset knew that his father's box, or boxes, could
boast of no such dimensions, and he was not surprised to see the chest
deposited in front of Miss Power. When the immense accumulation of dust
had been cleared off the lid, and the chest conveniently placed for her,
Somerset was attended to, his modest box being brought up by one man
unassisted, and without much expenditure of breath.

His interest in Paula was of so emotional a cast that his attention
to his own errand was of the most perfunctory kind. She was close to
a gas-standard, and the lawyers, whose seats had intervened, having
finished their business and gone away, all her actions were visible to
him. While he was opening his father's box the manager assisted Paula to
unseal and unlock hers, and he now saw her lift from it a morocco case,
which she placed on the table before her, and unfastened. Out of it she
took a dazzling object that fell like a cascade over her fingers. It
was a necklace of diamonds and pearls, apparently of large size and many
strands, though he was not near enough to see distinctly. When satisfied
by her examination that she had got the right article she shut it into
its case.

The manager closed the chest for her; and when it was again secured
Paula arose, tossed the necklace into her hand-bag, bowed to the
manager, and was about to bid him good morning. Thereupon he said with
some hesitation: 'Pardon one question, Miss Power. Do you intend to take
those jewels far?'

'Yes,' she said simply, 'to Stancy Castle.'

'You are going str