Part 10 (1/2)
”Then it's true about----”
”About him? Of course it is.”
”Oh! I thought she had made it up, shamelessly, because she knew it couldn't be contradicted.”
”It could have been contradicted easily enough if it hadn't been true.
Everybody has known about it for years.”
”But she told the maid the pearls were sham ones.”
”I dare say she did. But they weren't.”
”Then there is really a doubt whether she did steal the necklace?”
”Oh, I don't think so. It makes it all the more likely. She would think, if it was found out she had got rid of single pearls, she could explain it by her own necklace. The mistake she made was in not being satisfied with taking the pearls. If she had left that rotten little star alone, which can't have been worth more than a hundred pounds or so, I doubt if they would have brought it home to her.”
”But she may have taken the star, and not have had time to find the necklace, when Joan came in.”
”Oh no. If she had been in the middle of it Joan would have caught her at it. There was the stone to push back, as well as the panel to shut.
Besides, the necklace went. Who did take it, if she didn't? n.o.body else knew.”
”Oh, it's plain enough, of course. I haven't a doubt about it. But I thought you meant that there was some doubt.”
”No. I only meant there might have been, if she hadn't taken the star.
Of course, what she did was to get rid of those pearls as well as her own. She hasn't known which way to turn for money for ever so long.
She went out of favour in _that_ quarter a couple of years ago, or more.”
”Did she make any attempt to get her story backed up?”
”Moved heaven and earth, but found the doors shut. She found herself up against the police over there. They told her that if she dared to whisper such a story she would get into more serious trouble than she was in already. She's got pluck, you know. She must have seen it was no good, but she was in a royal rage, and made her people bring it up, out of spite. They say there were hints given; but I doubt that--in a court of law. Anyhow, they wouldn't have it, and it didn't do her any good.”
”Well, it's a most unsavoury story altogether,” said the Squire. ”The woman's in prison now, and she richly deserves it.”
He and d.i.c.k discussed the matter for another hour, and when the Squire was helped up to bed he repeated his injunctions to Mrs. Clinton that it was not to be mentioned in the house again.
BOOK II
CHAPTER I
BOBBY TRENCH IS ASKED TO KENCOTE
”Well, old fellow, I think you might.”
It was Bobby Trench who spoke, in a voice of injured pleading.
Humphrey laughed. ”My dear chap,” he said, ”I would, like a shot; but, to be perfectly honest with you, you haven't succeeded in commending yourself to the Governor, and, after all, it's his house and not mine.”
They were driving to a meet of hounds. Humphrey had so far taken to heart his father's criticisms upon his metropolitan mode of life that he had let his flat for the winter and taken a hunting box in Northamptons.h.i.+re, at which Bobby Trench was a frequent visitor. He was being asked by his friend to repeat the invitation he had given him some years before, to stay at Kencote for some country b.a.l.l.s, and he was kindly but firmly resisting the request.