"A woman told you that, no doubt."

"Yes, I think it was a woman."

"Anything else?"

"If I remember rightly, she said that Lady Sellingworth was the very
last woman one had expected to do such a thing, that she was one of the
old guard, whose motto is 'never give up,' that she went on expecting,
and tacitly demanding, the love and admiration which most men only give
with sincerity to young women long after she was no more young and had
begun to lose her looks. Perhaps it was all lies."

"No, no. There is something in it."

He looked meditative.

"It certainly was a sudden business," he presently added. "I have often
thought so. It came about after her return from Paris some ten years
ago--that time when her jewels were stolen."

"Were they?" said Craven.

"Were they!"

Braybrooke's tone just then really did rather suggest the world's
governess.

"My dear fellow--yes, they were, to the tune of about fifty thousand