o a rooted conviction on her part that a
burglar might still be lurking on the premises, concealed in the
cellaret, or the jam cupboard, or behind the drawing-room curtains.

By that morning's post I heard, as I expected I should do, from Sir
George Danvers, but the contents of the letter surprised me. He wrote
most cordially, thanking me for my kindness in undertaking such a heavy
responsibility (I am sure I never felt it to be so) for an entire
stranger, and ended by sending me a pressing invitation to come down
to Stoke Moreton that very day, that he and his son, whose future wife
was also staying with them, might have the pleasure of making the
acquaintance of one to whom they were so much indebted. He added that
his eldest son Charles was also going down from London by a certain
train that day, and that he had told him to be on the lookout for me at
the station in case I was able to come at such short notice. I made up
my mind to go, sent Sir George a telegram to that effect, and proceeded
to fish up the jewels out of the tea-caddy.

Jane, who had never ceased for one instant to comment on the event of
the night, positively shrieked when she saw me shaking the bag free from
tea-leaves.

"Good gracious! the burglars," she exclaimed. "Why, they might have
taken them if they had only known."

Of course they had _not_ known, as I had been particularly secret about
them; but I wished all the same that I had not left them there all
night, as Jane would insist, and continue insisting, that they had been
exposed to great danger. I argued the matter with her at first; but
women, I find, are impervious as a rule to masculine argument, and it is
a mistake to reason with them. It is, in fact, putting the sexes for the
moment on an equality to which the weaker one is unaccustomed, and
consequently unsuited.

A few hours later I was rolling swiftly towards Stoke Moreton in a
comfortable smoking carriage, only occupied by myself and Mr. Charles
Danvers, a handsome young fellow with a pale face and that peculiar
tired manner which (though, as I soon found, natural to him) is so often
affected by the young men of the day.

"And so Ralph has come in for a legacy in diamonds," he said,
listlessly, when we had exchanged the usual civilities, and had become,
to a certain degree, acquainted. "Dear me! how these good steady young
men prosper in the world. When last I heard from him he had prevailed
upon the one perfect woman in th