“Will it fetch me a meal?”

“A meal?” said the jeweller, and his eyes sparkled as he took the necklace. “A meal? Why it’s real—no, I mean mock—mock pearls—”

“And valueless?” said Ada.

“No—no—not quite—not quite, my dear. Here is a new guinea—a bright new guinea!”

Ada took the coin, and said, languidly—

“Alas! I am so strange here, I know not even how to dispose of this to procure me food.”

“Indeed?” said the jeweller. “Do you know nobody? Have you no friends?”

“Do you—can you,” said Ada, and a radiant blush suffused her cheeks as she spoke—“can you tell me, if you know where a Sir Seyton lives?”

“Does he know you had a necklace?” said the Jew.

“No, I scarcely knew it myself.”