being careful. But is it not rather rash, perhaps--"

"I know what you are going to say. Well, perhaps it is rash. But
when you are going to foreign courts, what are you to do? If you have
got those sort of things you must wear them."

As I was not myself possessed of anything of that sort, and had no
intention of going to any foreign court, I could not argue the matter
with her. But I assisted her in getting together an enormous pile of
luggage, among which there were seven large boxes covered with canvas,
such as ladies not uncommonly carry with them when travelling. That
one which she represented as being smaller than the others, and as
holding jewellery, might be about a yard long by a foot and a half
deep. Being ignorant in those matters, I should have thought it
sufficient to carry all a lady's wardrobe for twelve months. When the
boxes were collected together, she sat down upon the jewel-case and
looked up into my face. She was a pretty woman, perhaps thirty years
of age, with long light yellow hair, which she allowed to escape from
her bonnet, knowing, perhaps, that it was not unbecoming to her when
thus dishevelled. Her skin was very delicate, and her complexion
good. Indeed her face would have been altogether prepossessing had
there not been a want of gentleness in her eyes. Her hands, too, were
soft and small, and on the whole she may be said to have been
possessed of a strong battery of feminine attractions. She also well
knew how to use them.

"Whisper," she said to me, with a peculiar but very proper aspiration
on the h--"Wh-hisper," and both by the aspiration and the use of the
word I knew at once from what island she had come. "Mr. Greene keeps
all his money in this box also; so I never let it go out of my sight