CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. [In Juliet's Sitting Room]
II. [The Explanation]
III. ["To Meet the Duchess"]
IV. [The Letter with the Tsarina's Seal]
V. [The Third Ringer of the Bell]
VI. [Behind the Bookshelf]
VII. [What Juliet Told Jack]
VIII. [Juliet Breaks the Seals]
IX. [The Eye That Looked to the Right]
X. [The House in a Crosstown Street]
XI. [In Jack's Private Sitting Room]
XII. ["The 'Whisperer' Stuff"]
XIII. [A Woman's Eyes]
XIV. [Supper at Twelve]
XV. [The Fortune Teller]
XVI. [The Grey Room]
XVII. [The Crystal]
XVIII. [The Bargain]
XIX. [Old Nick]
XX. [The Third Degree]
XXI. [The Middle Door]
XXII. [The Whole of the Secret]
THE GREAT PEARL SECRET
CHAPTER I
IN JULIET'S SITTING ROOM
A maid opened the door leading from a bedroom to a salon of the "royal suite" at Harridge's Hotel. Dusk had fallen, and entering, she switched on the electricity. The room, with its almost Louis Seize decorations, was suddenly flooded with light; and to her surprise the Frenchwoman saw a slim black figure nestled deep among cushions on a sofa before the fire. A small white face, with a frame of terra-cotta hair crushed under a mourning toque, turned a pair of big black eyes upon her.
"Miladi West!" exclaimed the maid. (She pronounced it "Vest") "Pardon, Madame, I did not know that any one was here."
She spoke in French, with an accent which told that her first language had been Italian, learned in the south of France; though in looks she was the chic Parisienne. Her English was quite good, but when she used that tongue, her accent was of New York. She preferred French, however, was proud of being French, and had Frenchified her Nicois-Italian name of Simonetta Amaranti to Simone Amaranthe. All Juliet Phayre's friends had to be polite to Simone.
"Mr. Phayre's man let me in," said the red-haired lady in widow's weeds. "After I'd had a look at the wedding presents, I was so dazzled that I switched off the lights." She laughed, and then cried, "Leave the lights now! I suppose Mademoiselle won't be forever?"