marvellous courage and pluck. The jewels are clearly hers, and,
egad, I believe that if I were heartless enough to take them from
her, the wicked old fellow would be out of his grave in a fortnight,
leading me the devil of a life. As for their being heirlooms,
nothing is an heirloom that is not so mentioned in a will or legal
document, and the existence of these jewels has been quite unknown.
I assure you I have no more claim on them than your butler, and when
Miss Virginia grows up I daresay she will be pleased to have pretty
things to wear. Besides, you forget, Mr. Otis, that you took the
furniture and the ghost at a valuation, and anything that belonged
to the ghost passed at once into your possession, as, whatever
activity Sir Simon may have shown in the corridor at night, in point
of law he was really dead, and you acquired his property by
purchase.'

Mr. Otis was a good deal distressed at Lord Canterville's refusal,
and begged him to reconsider his decision, but the good-natured peer
was quite firm, and finally induced the Minister to allow his
daughter to retain the present the ghost had given her, and when, in
the spring of 1890, the young Duchess of Cheshire was presented at
the Queen's first drawing-room on the occasion of her marriage, her
jewels were the universal theme of admiration. For Virginia
received the coronet, which is the reward of all good little
American girls, and was married to her boy-lover as soon as he came
of age. They were both so charming, and they loved each other so
much, that every one was delighted at the match, except the old
Marchioness of Dumbleton, who had tried to catch the Duke for one of
her seven unmarried daughters, and had given no less than three
expensive dinner-parties for that purpose, and, strange to say, Mr.
Otis himself. Mr. Otis was extremely fond of the young Duke