"Certainly," said his friend; and at this moment the carriage was
announced. "I suppose it wouldn't do for me to buy the thing? You know I
have more money to spend on trinkets than you have."

They were very intimate friends indeed. Lord Evelyn only said, with a
smile,

"I am afraid Natalie wouldn't like it."

But this choosing of a birthday present was a terrible business. The
jeweller was as other jewellers: his designs were mostly limited to the
representation of two objects--a butterfly for a woman, and a horseshoe
for a man. At last Brand, who had been walking about from time to time,
espied, in a distant case, an object which instantly attracted his
attention. It was a flat piece of wood or board, covered with blue
velvet; and on this had been twined an unknown number of yards of the
beautiful thread-like gold chain common to the jewellers' shop-windows
in Venice.

"Here you are, Evelyn," Brand said at once. "Why not buy a lot of this
thin chain, and let her make it into any sort of decoration that she
chooses?"

"It is an ignominious way out of the difficulty," said the other: but he
consented; and yard after yard of the thread-like chain was unrolled.
When allowed to drop together, it seemed to go into no compass at all.

They went outside.

"What are you going to do now, Brand?"