As she swept silently into the room she impressed me with a greater
sense of grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the
more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong character,
with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding my presence, she
went straight to her uncle and passed her hand over his head with a
sweet womanly caress.
You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you not,
dad? she asked.
No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom.
But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman s instincts
are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will be sorry for
having acted so harshly.
Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?
Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should suspect
him.
How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with the
coronet in his hand?
Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take my
word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say no more.
It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in prison!
I shall never let it drop until the gems are found never, Mary! Your
affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences to me. Far
from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman down from London
to inquire more deeply into it.
This gentleman? she asked, facing round to me.
No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in the
stable lane now.
The stable lane? She raised her dark eyebrows. What can he hope to
find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, that you will
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