Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/294

 She told the landlady that she was married to an English husband, a commercial traveller, who was away from her at present on business. She had paid, with Lady Hereward's money, for a week in advance, and the next morning had got her luggage from Charing Cross Station where she had left it on arriving in England some days before. When she read the paper, and saw what a sensation Lady Hereward's death had made, she was afraid to sell the jewelry, even the stones picked out of their gold settings, as she had intended to do. She lived on the money remaining of the four sovereigns, paying her lodgings in advance, by request, until all was gone. Then she resolved to pawn the little gold case, which was so like many others of its kind that she hoped it would not be remarked.

This, then, was the story of Liane Rodache, and the finding of the vanity box.