“Ah!” exclaimed the professor, appealing to the company at large; “see what an advantage it is to be a rich man. What do you propose to do with yours, Lethbridge?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” answered the ex-colonel; “follow Elphinstone’s example, I think, and have a suite made for this young woman,” pinching Ida’s cheek, “against the time when she is old enough to get married; and—perhaps sell the rest some time or other.”
The professor glanced inquiringly at Mildmay.
“I think I, too, will have a suite made,” observed the sailor; “it seems rather a good idea. Pretty sure to come in handy, sooner or later.”
And his eyes turned, as though unconsciously, in the direction of Feodorovna Sziszkinski, to the confusion of that young lady, and the covert amusement of Lady Olivia.
Chapter Twenty One.
Mildmay’s Adventure with an Octopus.
The two succeeding days were very fully occupied upon the somewhat difficult and delicate task of effecting an equal division of the fabulously rich haul of rubies that they had so easily acquired in so short a time; and on the third day—being Sunday—everybody took a rest, as was usual with them whenever possible.