end, "I sees by yer face, poor lamb, as you remembers all about what
made you drop down in that faint. And look you here, my lamb, you've
got to tell me, Jane Parsons, all about it; and what is more, if I
can help you I will. You tell Jane all the whole story, honey, for it
'ud go to a pagan's heart to see you, and so it would; and you
needn't be feared, for she ain't anywheres about. She said as she
wanted no dinner, and she's safe in her room a-reckoning the money in
the purse, I guess."

"Oh, Jane!" said little Cecile, "the purse! the Russia-leather
purse! I think I'll die, since Aunt Lydia Purcell has found the
Russia-leather purse."

"Well, tell us the whole story, child. It do seem a wonderful thing
for a bit of a child like you to have a purse of gold, and then to
keep it a-hiding. I don't b'lieve as you loves gold like Miss Purcell
do; it don't seem as if you could have come by so much money wrong,
Cecile."

"No, Jane, I didn't come by it wrong. Mrs. D'Albert, my stepmother,
gave me that Russia-leather purse, with all the gold and notes in it,
when she was dying. I know exactly how much was in it, fifteen pounds
in gold, and forty pounds in ten-pound Bank of England notes. I can't
ever forget what was in that dreadful purse, as my stepmother told me
I was never to lose until I found Lovedy."

"And who in the name of fortune is Lovedy, Cecile? You do tell the
queerest stories I ever listened to."

"Yes, Jane, it is a very queer tale, and though I understand it