"My dear fellow, it was fifteen times worse for you than for us! A most uncomfortable position; I congratulate you a hundred times. Just in the nick of time, too. In a month or so there would have been no bundle to discover." A general gasp at once of dismay and relief passed round the little inner circle of those most nearly interested in the recovered treasures, and the first excitement of recovery having passed, every one seemed bent on lavishing thanks and praises upon the girl through whom the happy discovery had come about. "Who is she?" "What is her name?" "Where does she come from?" The questions buzzed on every side, and the answer, "Lady Hayes's grand-niece," served only to enhance existing attractions. Darsie found herself kissed, patted, embraced, called by a dozen caressing names by half a dozen fine ladies in turn, during which process every eye on the lawn was turned upon her blushing face. Through a gap in the crowd she could see Lady Hayes holding as it were a secondary court, being thanked effusively for possessing a grand-niece with a faculty for recovering jewels, and bowing acknowledgments with a bright patch of colour on either cheekbone. The position was so strange and bewildering that even yet it seemed more like a dream than reality; that sudden rain of jewels descending from the linen bag was the sort of thing one might expect in an Arabian night adventure rather than in the midst of a decorous English garden-party! It must surely be in imagination that she, Darsie Garnett, has been hailed as a good fairy to all these fashionably dressed men and women! The almost hysteric effusion of the women who kissed and gushed around her must surely have something infectious in its nature, since she herself was beginning to feel an insane inclination to burst into tears or laughter, it was immaterial which of the two it should be. Darsie turned a quick look around, searching for a way of escape, and at that moment Noreen's hand pressed on her arm, and she found herself being led gently towards the house. "Poor old Darsie, then! She looks quite dazed!" said Noreen's voice. "No wonder, after all that fuss. You've been kissed to pieces, poor dear, and howled over, too. Silly things! howling when things are lost, and howling again when they are found! I've no patience with them; but, oh, my dear, I _do_ bless you for what you've done! You've no idea how relieved we shall be. It was such a _stigma_ to have your guests robbed under your own roof, and by one of your own men, too. Mother has never been the same since--worried herself into nerves, and fancied every one blamed her, and thought she'd been careless. You can't think _how_ happy she'll be writing to the people who aren't here to-day telling them that their things are found. She'll feel a new creature."