that he was a steward, adding that he
was a landsman at heart, and that, but for the opportunities of trading
which his occupation presented he should go to sea no more.

Suddenly--

"What else have you got?" said Daphne.

Six panels of Chinese embroidery--all powder-blue and gold, 'laborious
Orient ivories,' a gorgeous hanging that had been the coat of a proud
mandarin, three Chinese mats, aged and flawless, a set of silken
doilies--each one displaying a miniature landscape limned with a
subtlety that baffled every eye--one by one these treasures were laid
before us.

Even Jonah went down before the ivories.

Ere the trunk was empty, we had, one and all, dropped our masks and
were revelling openly.

"Now, isn't that beautiful?" "Sally's got a ball like that, but it
isn't so big." "It's just as well she's in Ireland, or we shouldn't
have had those mats." "You know, that rug on the chair's a devilish
fine one." "They all are." "Yes, but that--my dear fellow, it's the
sort of rug they put in the window and refuse to sell, because it's
such an advertisement." "I'll tell you what, if we had those panels
made into curtains, they'd look simply priceless in the drawing-room."
"Give me the ivories."

It was Adele who pulled the check-string.

"What's the price of this rug?" she said quietly.

There was an expectant and guilty hush.

With a careless flourish we had called the tune--clamoured for it....
If the piper's fee was exorbitant, we had only ourselves to thank.

Planchet hesitated. Then--

"Five hundred francs, _Madame_."

Ten pounds.

You could have heard a pin drop.

The rug was worth sixty. In Regent Street or Fifth Avenue we should
have been asked a hundred. If this was typical of Planchet's prices,
no wonder Sally had plunged....

I took out a pencil and picked up a pad of notepaper.

"And the other rugs?" I inquired.

"The same price, _Monsieur_."

The rugs went down.

Slowly, and without a shadow of argument, the prices of the other
valuables were asked, received, and entered.

With a shaking hand I counted up the figures--eight thousand six
hundred francs.

I passed the paper to Berry.

"Will you pay him?" I said. "I haven't got enough at the bank here,
and you can't expect him to take a foreign cheque."

"Right oh!"

"He may not want to part with them all at one house," said Daphne.
"You'd better ask him."

Adele smiled very charmingly.

"We like your pretty things