is tread that made him
seem ten years younger than on the previous day.

He had requested the landlord to tell Mr. Cleon what steps he was about
to take with the view of supplying M. Platzoff with a new footman. In
these proceedings the mulatto acquiesced ungraciously. Truth to tell, he
was bored by Mr. Deedes and his friendly officiousness, and although
secretly glad that the trouble of hunting out a new servant had been
taken off his hands, he was not a man willingly to acknowledge his
obligations to another.

Mr. Deedes set out immediately after breakfast on Thursday morning, and
having walked to the Ferry Hotel, he took the steamer from that place to
Newby Bridge. Mr. James Jasmin was at the landing-stage, awaiting his
arrival. After shaking hands heartily, and inquiring as to each other's
health, the two wandered off arm-in-arm down one of the quiet country
roads. Then Mr. Deedes explained to Mr. Jasmin his reasons for sending
for him from London, and with what view he was desirous of introducing
him into Bon Repos. The younger man listened attentively. When the elder
one had done, he said:

"Father, this is a very pretty scheme of yours; but it seems to me that
I am to be nothing more than a cat's-paw in the affair. You have only
given me half your confidence. You must give me the whole of it before I
can agree to act as you wish. I want to hear the whole history of the
case, and how you came to be mixed up in it. Further, I want to know how
much Lady Chillington intends to give you in case you succeed in getting
back the diamond, and what my share of the recompense is to be?"

"Dear, dear! what a headstrong boy you are!" moaned Mr. Deedes. "Why
can't you be content with what I tell you, and leave the rest to me?"

The younger man made no reply in words, but turned abruptly on his heel
and began to walk back.

"James! James!" cried the old man, catching his son by the coat tails,
"do not go off in that way. It shall be as you wish. I will tell you
everything. You headstrong boy! Do you want to break your poor father's
heart?"

"Break your fiddlestick!" said Mr. Jasmin, irreverently. "Let us sit
down on this green bank, and you shall tell me all about the Diamond
while I try the quality of these cigars. I am all attention."

Thus adjured, Mr. Deedes sighed deeply, wiped his forehead with his
handkerchief, looked meditatively into his hat for a few seconds, and
then began.

Beginning with the narrative of