“You flatter me, Don Pedro,” she said, waving a wholly unnecessary fan out of compliment to her guest’s Spanish extraction.  “Indeed, I am very glad that you are pleased with my poor little house.”

“Pardon, madame, but no house can be poor when it is a casket to contain such a jewel.”

“There!” said Lucy somewhat satirically to the young men, while Mrs. Jasher blushed and bridled, “what Englishman could turn such a compliment?  It reminds one of Georgian times.”

“We are more sober now than my fathers were then,” said Hope, smiling, “and I am sure if Random thought for a few minutes he could produce something pretty.  Go on, Random.”

“My brain is not equal to the strain after dinner,” said Sir Frank.

As for Donna Inez, she did not speak, but sat smiling quietly in her corner of the room, looking remarkably handsome.  As a young girl Lucy was pretty, and Mrs. Jasher was a comely widow, but neither one had the majestic looks of the Spanish lady.  She smiled, a veritable queen amidst the gim-crack ornaments of Mrs. Jasher’s parlor, and Sir Frank, who was fathoms deep in love, could not keep his eyes off her face.

For a few minutes the conversation was frivolous, quite the Shakespeare and musical glasses kind of speech.  Then Mrs. Jasher, who had no idea that her good dinner should be wasted in charming nothings, introduced the subject of the mummy by a reference to Professor Braddock.  It was characteristic of her cleverness that she did not address Don Pedro, but pointed her speech at Lucy Kendal.

“I do hope your father will return with that mummy,” she observed, after a dexterous allusion to the late tragedy.

“I don’t think he has gone to look for it,” replied Miss Kendal indifferently.

“But surely he desired to get it back, after paying nearly one thousand pounds for it,” said Mrs. Jasher, with well-feigned astonishment.

“Oh, of course; but he would scarcely look for it in London.”

“Has Professor Braddock gone to search for the mummy?” asked Don Pedro.

“No,” answered Lucy.  “He is visiting the British Museum to make some researches in the Egyptian department.”

“When do you expect him back, please?”

Lucy shrugged her shoulders.

“I can’t say, Don Pedro.  My father comes and goes as the whim takes him.”

The Spanish gentleman looked thoughtfully into the fire.

“I shall be glad to see the Professor when he returns,” he said in his excellent, slow-sounding English.  “My concern about this mummy is deep.”

“Dear me,” remarked Mrs. Jasher, shielding her fair cheek with the unnecessary fan, and venturing on a joke, “is the mummy a relative?”

“Yes, madame,” replied Don Pedro, gravely and unexpectedly.

At this every one, very naturally, looked astonished—­that is, all save Donna Inez, who still preserved her fixed smile.  Mrs. Jasher took a mental note of the same, and decided that the young lady was not very intelligent.  Meanwhile Don Pedro continued his speech after a glance round the circle.