The collar of gold and the golden chain that held him in

On his return, he found her spread all over with papers, her little table by her side, with the drawer pulled out.

'Ha! what mischief are you up to? You have not got at those abominable accounts again!'

'I beg your pardon,' said she, humbly. 'Nurse would not let me speak to the cook, but said instead I might write to mamma; so I sent for my little table, but I found the drawer in such disorder, that I was setting it to rights. Who can have meddled with it!'

'I can tell you that,' said Arthur. 'I ran against it, and it came to grief, and there was a spread of all your goods and chattels on the floor.'

'Oh! I am so glad! I was afraid some of the servants had been at it.'

'What! aren't you in a desperate fright? All your secrets displayed like a story, as you are so fond of saying--what's the name of it-- where the husband, no, it was the wife, fainted away, and broke open the desk with her head.'

'My dear Arthur!' and Violet laughed so much that nurse in the next room foreboded that he would tire her.

'I vow it was so! Out came a whole lot of letters from the old love, a colonel in the Peninsula, that her husband had never heard of,--an old lawyer he was.'