." Sally knitted her brows. "They're not yours. We
bought them from Planchet. Directly I saw them, I thought how
beautifully they'd match yours, and we wanted you to have a set."

Sally stared at her.

"But I could have sworn-----"

"I know," said Daphne. "It was because they were such a wonderful
match that we----"

"What else did he sell you?"

A sudden thought came to me, and I turned to catch Berry by the arm....
As men in a film, he and I looked at one another with open mouths....

Sublimely unconscious. Daphne and Adele were reciting the list of our
treasures.

Mrs. Featherstone heard them out solemnly. Then--

"And what," she said, "does Planchet look like?"

It became Daphne's turn to stare.

I moistened my lips.

"Slight, dark, clean-shaven, large brown eyes, nervous manner, scar on
the left temple--_or am I describing Marat?_"

Sally spread out her hands.

"To the life," she said simply.

There was a dreadful silence.

At length--

"'Sold,'" I said slowly. "'By order of the trustees. Owner going
abroad.' Marat was with you when you bought them, of course? But what
a smart bit of work!"

Sally covered her face and began to shake with laughter. Daphne and
Adele stared at her as if bewitched.

At his third attempt to speak--

"Well, that's topping," said Berry. "And now will you come back and
get your things now, or shall we bring them over to-morrow? We've
taken every care of them." He sighed. "When I think," he added,
"that, but for my good offices, Nobby would have sent that treacherous
drawlatch away, not only empty, but with the modern equivalent of a
flea in his ear, I could writhe. When I reflect that it was I who
supported the swine's predilection for hard cash, I could scream. But
when I remember that ever since our purchase of the shawl, my wife has
never once stopped enumerating and/or indicating the many superiorities
which distinguish it from yours, I want to break something." He looked
round savagely. "Where's a grocer's?" he demanded. "I want some
marmalade."

CHAPTER IV

HOW BERRY MADE AN ENGAGEMENT, JILL A PICTURE, AND ADELE A SLIP OF SOME
IMPORTANCE

A natural result of our traffic with Planchet was that we became
temporarily suspicious and careful to a fault. The horse had been
stolen. For the next three weeks we locked not only the stable door,
but every single door to which a key could be fitted--and suffered
accordingly. In a word