"What does this mean?" she said to herself. "Oh, of course I ought to give it to the driver, and tell him that somebody has left it here. But why should I? I wonder how much is in it?"
She took it up, and saw further, to her astonishment, that there were letters printed in silver on the outside. The letters might have stood for her own name--"K.H."
"More and more marvellous!" thought the girl.
She opened the purse now, and tumbled the contents into her lap. Altogether there was over a hundred pounds within--about twenty-nine pounds in gold, the rest in notes. Notes are dangerous things to deal with when one wants to be a thief. But Kitty did not think of anything so dreadful as the word "thief" just now. With a hundred pounds she could appease Madame Dupuys; she could get her dress in time for the ball--she could see a way out of her difficulties. Not yet did her conscience prick her; not for an instant did she feel remorse. She would do it. Was it Providence that had put this purse in her way, or was it-- She did not wait even to think out the remainder of the sentence. She poked her parasol through the roof of the hansom.
"I want you to go back to 340 Bond Street," she said to the man.
He turned his hansom at once. When they reached the house, Kitty got out, rang the bell, and asked to see Madame Dupuys. The girl who opened the door to her brought her upstairs at once, and in two minutes' time she was in madame's presence.
"Here," said the girl, panting as she spoke, "if I give you a hundred pounds now, will you give me a week or ten days longer to pay the remainder?"
"I will give you six weeks exactly, Miss Hepworth," replied the dressmaker.
"Six weeks!" gasped Kitty. It seemed like a lifetime. She might be married by then. Who knew what might take place long before six weeks were out? "Yes, yes, that is all right," she said.
She took the little purse out of her pocket; it bore her own initials. Madame was not for a single moment surprised at seeing it. Kitty tumbled the contents on the table.
"There," she said again. "There are one hundred pounds. Count them."
The dressmaker bent over the notes and gold. She counted hastily.
"One hundred pounds and five shillings," she said.