" cried Lady Vandeleur, "all our diamonds are gone, and I owe
ninety thousand pounds for dress!"

"Madam," said the General, "you might have paved the gutter with your
own trash; you might have made debts to fifty times the sum you mention;
you might have robbed me of my mother's coronet and ring; and Nature
might have still so far prevailed that I could have forgiven you at
last. But, madam, you have taken the Rajah's Diamond--the Eye of Light,
as the Orientals poetically termed it--the Pride of Kashgar! You have
taken from me the Rajah's Diamond," he cried, raising his hands, "and
all, madam, all is at an end between us!"

"Believe me, General Vandeleur," she replied, "that is one of the most
agreeable speeches that ever I heard from your lips; and since we are to
be ruined, I could almost welcome the change, if it delivers me from
you. You have told me often enough that I married you for your money;
let me tell you now that I always bitterly repented the bargain; and if
you were still marriageable, and had a diamond bigger than your head, I
should counsel even my maid against a union so uninviting and
disastrous.--As for you, Mr. Hartley," she continued, turning on the
secretary, "you have sufficiently exhibited your valuable qualities in
this house; we are now persuaded that you equally lack manhood, sense,
and self-respect; and I can see only one course open for you--to
withdraw instanter, and, if possible, return no more. For your wages you
may rank as a creditor in my late husband's bankruptcy."

Harry had scarcely comprehended this insulting address before the
General was down upon him with another.

"And in the meantime," said that personage, "follow me before the
nearest Inspector of Police. You may impose upon a simple-minded
soldier, sir, but the eye of the law will read your disreputable secret.
If I must spend my old age in poverty through your underhand intriguing
with my wife, I mean at least that you shall not remain unpunished for
your pains; and God, sir, will deny me a very considerable satisfaction
if you do not pick oakum from now until your dying day."

With that, the General dragged Harry from the apartment, and hurried him
down-stairs and along the street to the police-station of the district.

_Here_ (says my Arabian author) _ended this deplorable business of the
bandbox. But to the unfortunate secretary the whole affair was the
beginning of a new and manlier life. The police were easily