XLV.-THE SAPPHIRE
XLVL-REPARATION
XLVII.-ANOTHER CHANGE
XLVIIL-DISSOLUTION
XLIX.-THORNWICK
L.-WILLIAM AND MARY MARSTON
LI.-A HARD TASK
LII.-A SUMMONS
LIII.-A FRIEND IN NEED
LIV.-THE NEXT NIGHT
LV.-DISAPPEARANCE
LVI.-A CATASTROPHE
LVII.-THE END OF THE BEGINNING




CHAPTER I

THE SHOP


It was an evening early in May. The sun was low, and the street
was mottled with the shadows of its paving-stones--smooth enough,
but far from evenly set. The sky was clear, except for a few
clouds in the west, hardly visible in the dazzle of the huge
light, which lay among them like a liquid that had broken its
vessel, and was pouring over the fragments. The street was almost
empty, and the air was chill. The spring was busy, and the summer
was at hand; but the wind was blowing from the north.