monds.

"I want to sell this," said Maggie, speaking abruptly and the color
flaming into her cheeks. "What will you give me for it?"

"Oh my!" suddenly exclaimed one of the ladies who was purchasing
jewels in Pearce's shop, "what a lovely curio! Wherever now did you
get it from?"

Maggie turned and said in a low tone, "It belongs to me. It was left
to me by my father."

The man who was attending to Maggie took up the brooch and examined it
carefully. He took it into another room, where he subjected it to
various tests. He then came back to Maggie.

"I will give you five pounds for this, miss, if you can satisfy me
that you have come rightly by it."

"Oh my!" said the American lady, drawing near, and her eyes
glistening.

"What is your address, miss?"

Maggie by no means wished to give her address. "I haven't, stolen that
brooch," she said. "It belongs to me; I have a right to sell it."

"Of course, miss, I shall never trouble you in any way, but I really
must have your address. In purchasing secondhand from young ladies
like yourself it is essential that everything should be above-board
and quite correct."

"Well," said Maggie in a hurried voice, "take the brooch and give me
the money. I must get back as quickly as I can. I am one of Mrs.
Ward's pupils at Aylmer House."

The man looked at Maggie with all respect. "And your own name?"

"Howland," said Maggie. "Miss Howland."

The man entered name and address in his book, and then handed Maggie
five sovereigns. She was hurrying from the shop, when the customer who
had been standing near all the time, and listening with great
attention, followed her.

"I say, young lady," she exclaimed, "I am from New York, and I like
your quaint old English things. That man cheated you, I take it. If
you had offered me that brooch I'd have given you fifteen pounds for
it, not five. If you have any more curios to sell, my address is Miss
H. Annie Lapham, Langham Hotel. I am straight from the States, and
would like to take a collection of beautiful things home with me."

"Thank you," said Maggie in a hurried voice.

She ran back to Aylmer House as quickly as she could. As soon as she
was quite out of sight the lady re-entered the shop.

"Say," she remarked to the shopman, "I witnessed that little
transaction between you and Miss Howland. I want to buy that brooch
for ten pounds."

"I am sorry, madam," said the man, "but it is not for sale just at
present."

"That