a certain note had been struck, made the young men uncomfortable. He was curious, but there was a kind of discretion, with his pupils, that he had always pretended to practise; a discretion that, however, didn't prevent him as he took his way upstairs from recommending them not to be donkeys.
At the top of the staircase, to his surprise, he met Miss Julian, who was apparently going down again. She had not begun to undress, nor was she perceptibly disconcerted at seeing him. She nevertheless, in a manner slightly at variance with the rigor with which she had overlooked him ten minutes before, dropped the words, "I'm going down to look for something. I've lost a jewel."
"A jewel?"
"A rather good turquoise, out of my locket. As it's the only ornament I have the honor to possess—" And she passed down.
"Shall I go with you and help you?" asked Spencer Coyle.
The girl paused a few step below him, looking back with her Oriental eyes.
