et, and had devoured another couple, lavishly buttered, accompanied
by a fairly liberal cut of beefsteak.

Consequently, when Raikes conveyed his customary intimation that she was
at liberty to begin, the spinster obediently proceeded to add a moderate
breakfast to the one she had already enjoyed.

Trembling lest her brother would remark the developing suggestions of
well-being which had resulted from her recent regimen, she welcomed with
genuine relief the advent of the Sepoy, to whom Raikes transferred his
speculative glance.

"Well!" exclaimed the Sepoy, "you have had quite a siege, I hear."

"I have," replied Raikes shortly; then added with a sort of grim humor:
"My physician has recommended a little diversion, and I have just
thought of a simple way of following his advice."

"What is that?" asked the Sepoy.

"I would like to present myself at the usual hour and hear the
conclusion of the story, for I judge, from the predicament of Prince
Otondo, that the end is not far off."

"Ah, you remember?" exclaimed the Sepoy.

"Decidedly!" replied Raikes.

"Very well, then," returned the other. "Come at ten and I will gather
the tangled threads together."

During the balance of that day Raikes devoted his powers of
concentration to the consummation of the treatment to which he had
subjected himself, and this, together with the prospect of the recovery
of his property, resulted in a condition which made the visits of the
astonished physician no longer necessary.

With an eagerness intensified to a childish impatience, almost, by the
vague suggestions of Gratz that the story would be personally
interesting, and exhausting his mind with futile speculations as to the
manner of its application to the unnatural conditions which distressed
him so, Raikes at last concluded his contemplation of the clock, and
promptly upon the stroke of ten, hastened from his room and hurried to
the apartment occupied by the Sepoy.

Seating himself in the chair indicated by his host, he shortly found
that he was unable to avoid recalling his recent guilty appropriation of
the diamond, and a degree of confusion, which he could not entirely
disguise, manifested itself in his difficulty of adjusting his eyes to
the inscrutable gaze of the Sepoy.

On this occasion the narrator, as hitherto, did not provide his auditor
with a brilliant to look upon during the progress of the story--an
omission that was radiantly repaired by the two lamben