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262 anyone, and, in particular, nothing is to be said to Lord Hardaway. I may mention, by the way, that Lord Hardaway is to be married, almost immediately, to Miss Bonnyer-Lees."

Mr. Ruby rubbed his hands and smiled.

"We are delighted to hear it, Mr. Champnell—delighted! You may rely on us not to breathe a word to Lord Hardaway; we quite understand that it was only a little joke of his. His lordship is so full of humour."

Mr. Golden's tone—he was examining the jewels as he spoke—was not quite so effusive.

"If you had been in my place, and had suffered what I suffered, you might not have seen the joke quite so clearly, Ruby. There is such a thing as being almost too full of humour."

Mr. Champnell went straight from Bond Street to the Marquis of Bewlay's. He found the Marquis in his smoking-room.

"You may make your mind easy on the subject of those infernal machines. Here they are." Mr. Champnell took thirteen empty tins from a bag which he was carrying. "They have all gone off, but as they were all filled with water it would seem as if somebody had been planning a practical joke at your expense. That sort of infernal machine hardly savours of a secret society."

"It certainly does not, and though you mayn't think it, Mr. Champnell, it's worth all of two hundred guineas to me to know it."

"I am very glad indeed to hear it."

And so the Hon. Augustus told himself again, when, having returned to his own quarters, he had