osphorus_
at----"

"Indeed! Oh! I fancied you were quite old friends."

"We made great friends on the steamer."

"Did you see much of him in London?" he asked, filling up his glass and
mine.

"Not much, naturally," I said, laughing. "I was in London only two
nights."

"Ah! I forgot. Very good of you, I am sure, to come down here so soon
after your arrival. You would hardly have seen him at all since you
landed, then?"

"Carr? Yes," I replied, thinking Charles's talk was becoming very vague;
though when I rallied him about it next day he assured me it had been
very much to the point indeed. "We dined and went to the play together,
and had rather a nasty accident into the bargain on our way home."

"What kind of accident?"

I told him the particulars, which seemed to interest him very much.

"And you had all those jewels of poor Sir John's with you, no doubt,"
continued Charles. "You said you had them on you day and night. I wonder
you were not relieved of them."

"That is just what Carr said," I went on; "for he lost something of his,
poor fellow. However, I had left them with Jane in a--in a _safe
place_."

I did not think it necessary to mention the tea-caddy.

"Oh! so Carr knew you had charge of them, did he?" said Charles. "Have
some of these grapes, Middleton; the white ones are the best."

"Yes," I said, "he was the only person who had any idea of such a thing.
I am very careful, I can tell you; and I did not mean to have half the
ship's company know that I had valuables to such an amount upon me. When
I told Jane about them--"

"Oh, then, Jane--I beg her pardon, Miss Middleton--was aware you had
them with you?"

"Of course," I replied; "and she was quite astonished at them when I
showed them to her."

"I hope," continued Charles, with his charming smile--all the more
charming because it was so rare--"that Miss Middleton will add me to the
number of her friends some day. I live in London, you know; but I wonder
at ladies caring to live there. No poultry or garden, to which the
feminine mind usually clings."

"Jane seems to like it," I said.

"Yes," replied Charles, meditatively. "I dare say she is very wise. A
woman who lives alone is much safer in town than in an isolated house in
the country, in case of fire, or thieves, or----"

"Well, I don't know that," I said. "I don't see that they are so very
safe. Why, only the night before I came down here----" I stopped. I had
looked up to catc