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158 doubt carved as a doll or a work of art. But how did it come into a girls' school?"

"I quite agree that it is most unsuitable. I should myself call it indecent. That is why I keep it on my desk." (Reggie mastered a smile.) "It was found recently in the library. No doubt one of the girls having relations in India or Africa was given the thing as an odd savage trinket. She lost it and, recognizing that it was an undesirable thing, is afraid to claim it. As a matter of school discipline I am disturbed and annoyed. I cannot conceive that it concerns you, Mr. Fortune."

"It's the only thing that interests me," said Reggie. He was tired of the lady. "You don't understand the question, madame. This isn't the kind of trinket any one can pick up. It's a jewel. This little lady"—he handled her affectionately—"she's fifteen thousand years old. She's palæolithic. There's only a few of her in the world. Some Frenchman called her type the Hottentot Venus, because she's a little like the women of that tribe. But the woman she was modelled on may have been an ancestor of yours or mine."

"I think not, Mr. Fortune." Miss Lomas was horrified.

"We have had time to improve on her, madame," Reggie bowed. "This is the point. Outside national museums, there are only half a dozen collections which own one of these ladies. Who's the