“So this is what my lady hides in the secret drawer,” she said, putting the little packet in her pocket.

“Why, Phoebe, you’re never going to be such a fool as to take that?” cried Luke.

“I’d rather have this than the diamond bracelet you would have liked to take,” she said, her lips curving into a curious smile.  “You shall have the public-house, Luke.”

III.—­Robert Audley Comes on the Scene

Robert Audley was supposed to be a barrister, and had chambers in Fig Tree Court, Temple.  He was a handsome, lazy, care-for-nothing fellow of seven-and-twenty, the only son of the younger brother of Sir Michael Audley, who had left him a moderate competency.

One morning, Robert Audley strolled out of the Temple, Blackfriarswards.  At the corner of a court in St. Paul’s Churchyard he was almost knocked down by a man of his own age dashing headlong into the narrow opening.  Robert remonstrated; the stranger stopped suddenly, looked very hard at the speaker, and cried, in a tone of intense astonishment: 

“Bob!  I only touched British ground after dark last night, and to think I should meet you this morning!”

George Talboys, for the stranger was the late passenger on board the Argus, had been from boyhood the inseparable chum of Robert Audley.  The tale of Talboys’ marriage, his expedition to Australia, and his return with a fortune, was briefly told.  The pair took a hansom to the Westminster coffee-house where Talboys had written to his wife to forward letters.  There was no letter, and the young man showed very bitter disappointment.  By and by George mechanically picked up a “Times” newspaper of a day or two before, and stared vacantly at the first page.  He turned a sickly colour, and pointed to a line which ran:  “On the 24th inst., at Ventnor-Isle of Wight, Helen Talboys, aged 22.”  He knew no more until he opened his eyes in a room in his friend’s chambers in the Temple.

Next day he and Robert Audley journeyed by express to Ventnor, learned on inquiry at the principal hotel that a Captain Maldon, whose daughter was lately dead, was staying at Lansdowne Cottage; and thither they proceeded.  The captain and his little grandson, Georgey, were out.

George Talboys and his friend visited the churchyard where his wife was buried, commissioned a mason to erect a headstone on the grave, and then went to the beach to seek Captain Maldon and the little boy.

The captain, when he saw his son-in-law, coloured violently with something of a frightened look.  He told Talboys that only a few months after his departure he and Helen came to live at Southampton, where she had obtained a few pupils for the piano; but her health failed, and she fell into a decline, of which she died.  Broken-hearted, Talboys started for Liverpool to take ship for Australia, but failed to catch the steamer; returned to London, and accompanied Robert Audley on a long visit to Russia.