es the next.

"Where did the impertinent young madam get her fine clothes and her
quality air if not?" Sally asked herself, and the question was a
reasonable one.

"Have you brought me ought that I care to look at, Mistress Salisbury?"
broke in the old man impatiently. "You haven't come to buy that paltry
trinket, I'll swear."

"How do you knew? It takes my fancy. Where did you get it?"

"I've had it but five minutes. You passed the girl who sold it me as you
came in. A pretty coaxing wench. She'd make a man pour out his gold at
her feet if she cared to try."

Sally's lips went pallid with passion and her white nostrils quivered.

"A common little trull," she burst out. "She should be sent to Bridewell
and soundly whipped. 'Tis little more than six months she was a street
squaller cadging for pence round the boozing kens of St. Giles and Clare
Market. And now--pah! it makes me sick."

Sally flung the brooch upon the table with such violence it bounced a
foot in the air.

"Gently--gently, my good Sally," remonstrated Mountchance, "if you must
vent your fury upon anything choose your own property, not mine."

It was doubtful if the virago heard the request. She was not given to
curbing her temper, and leaning back in the chair, her body rigid, she
beat a tattoo with her high-heeled shoes and clenched her fists till
the knuckles whitened.

Mountchance had seen hysterical women oft times and was not troubled. He
opened a stoppered bottle and held its rim to the lady's nose. The
moment was well chosen, Sally was in the act of drawing a deep breath,
probably with the intention of relieving her feelings by shrieking
aloud. The ammonia was strong and she inhaled a full dose. She gasped,
she coughed, her eyes streamed, the current of her thoughts changed, she
poured a torrent of unadulterated Billingsgate upon the imperturbable
doctor who busied himself about other matters until Sally should think
fit to regain her senses.

That time came when after a brief interval of sullenness, accompanied by
much heaving of the bosom and biting of lips she deigned to produce the
pearl necklace, the spoil of Rofflash's highway robbery on the Bath
Road.

Mountchance looked at the pearls closely and his face became very
serious.

"The High Toby game I'll take my oath," said he in a low voice. "Such a
bit of plunder as this must be sent abroad. I dursn't attempt to get rid
of it here."

"That's _your_ business. My business is