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."

"Not really," he said, with affected carelessness. "Diamonds are very
cheap now; they find 'em by the bucketful in the Cape, you know."

She looked at him with grave reproach.

"You are trying to belittle it," she said; "but, indeed, I am not
deceived. And the gun, too! That must have been very expensive. Why--did
you spend so much?"