"Is it not perfect, simply perfect, Eleanor?" said Mrs. Lorton, holding out her arm with the bracelet on her wrist. "Really, I don't think you could have chosen a handsomer one, Mr. Vernon, if you had gone to London to do so." "I am glad you are pleased with it," he said simply. "Pleased? It is perfect! Eleanor, haven't you a word to say? No; I imagine you are too overwhelmed for words," said Mrs. Lorton, with a kind of cackle. "It is very beautiful, mamma," she said gravely; and her face, as she leaned over the thing, was grave also. Drake looked at her as he rose, and understood the look and the tone of her voice, and was glad that he had resisted the almost irresistible temptation to order a somewhat similar present for her. "I say, sir, you must get your gun down, and we must go for some rabbits," said Dick eagerly. "And I can get a day or two's shooting over the Maltby land as soon as the season opens. I'm sure they'd give it me." "That's tempting, Dick," said Drake; "and it adds another cause to my regret that I am leaving to-morrow." "Leaving to-morrow!" exclaimed Mrs. Lorton, with a gasp. "Surely not! You are not thinking, dreaming of going, my dear Mr. Vernon?" "It's very good of you," he said, picking up his cap and nearing the door. "But I couldn't stay forever, you know. I've trespassed on your hospitality too much already." "Oh, I say, you know!" expostulated Dick, in a deeply aggrieved tone. "I say, Nell, do you hear that? Mr. Vernon's going!" "Miss Nell knows that I have been 'going' for some days past, only that I haven't been able to tear myself away. It's nearly five, Miss Nell, and we ordered the boat for half-past four, you know," he added, in a matter-of-fact way. She rose and ran out of the room for her jacket and tam-o'-shanter, and they went out, leaving Mrs. Lorton and Dick still gloating over their presents. CHAPTER IX. Nell walked rapidly and talking quickly as they went down to the jetty, and it was not until the _Annie Laurie_ was slipping out into the bay that she grew silent and thoughtful. She sat in the stern with her arm over the tiller, her eyes cast down, her face grave; and Drake, feeling uncomfortable, said at last: "Might one offer a penny for your thoughts, Miss Nell?" She looked up and met the challenge with a sweet seriousness. "I was thinking of something that you told me the other day--when we were riding," she said. "I've told you so much----" "And so little!" he added mentally. "You said that you had been unlucky, that you had lost a great deal of money lately," she said, in a low voice. He nodded. "Yes; I think I did. It's true unfortunately; but it doesn't much matter." "Does it not?" she asked. "Why did you give mamma so costly a present? Oh, please don't deny it. I don't know very much about diamonds, but I know that that bracelet must have cost a great deal of money."