"No, for Darnley House is sold, and he cannot get it back. But he means to take another just as fine for me, and I am to choose all the furniture. Oh, mamma, he is so sorry for the bad way in which he treated me. He loves me still. There is nothing strange about that, is there, that you look so incredulous? I was his first love, you know. And he thinks me beautiful still. He is ready to do anything to prove his repentance." "Did you put him to the test?" Mrs. Cleveland inquires, ironically. "Yes, indeed! You know how often he has refused to have my jewels reset for me. So I said, 'if you really mean that, Leslie, let me have my pearls and diamonds put into a more elegant setting.'" "Oh!" groans Mrs. Cleveland, wringing her hands. "He was delighted at the idea," pursues Ivy, triumphantly, "and proposed that we should see about it at once. We drove down to the jeweler's, taking the pearls and diamonds with us. I selected the design for the settings at a terrible outlay, but Leslie did not murmur. He was glad to be forgiven on any terms." "Oh!" Mrs. Cleveland groans again. "Mother, I never saw you act so much like a simpleton!" Ivy exclaims. "Leslie is coming again to-morrow. He wants you to forgive him, too." "Oh, Ivy, you blind, credulous, silly little fool!" exclaims Mrs. Cleveland, in a towering passion. "What do mean?" the daughter cries, indignantly, springing to her feet. "I mean that you will never see Leslie Noble or your jewels again. It was all a plot to rob you of them. He has taken them for Vera, whom he has abducted and hidden away in obscurity." "He denies the charge, mamma. He believes with Mr. Gilbert that Vera has run away herself. But my jewels--oh, mamma, do you really believe he would rob me of them? Let us go down to the jeweler's and bring them back at once," exclaims Ivy, in feverish terror. "I will go with you, but I doubt if we shall find them there. He would no doubt take them away on some clever pretext as soon as he left you. Oh, how foolish you were to trust that villain's exaggerated repentance." "Let us go," Ivy answers, with feverish energy, tying on her bonnet, and hurrying her mother from the room. The sequel proved Mrs. Cleveland right. Leslie Noble had already taken away the jewels on the shallow pretext of his wife's change of mind. Poor Ivy was driven back to her lodgings, this time in real genuine hysterics. CHAPTER XLIV. "This is no time for hysterics, Ivy," Mrs. Cleveland tells her daughter sharply. "You would do better to rally your strength and calmness, and consider what you are to do to get back your jewels." Ivy struggles up to a sitting posture, her pale-blue eyes all drowned in tears over the loss of her diamonds--the golden calf of her vain heart's worship. "If you have nothing to do but ridicule me, you had better leave the room," cries Ivy, flushing to angriest crimson. "I thought you were going to suggest something to help me."