But Carmen replied not. And the Duke of Altern rubbed his weak eyes and tried hard to think.
CHAPTER 16
Before Mrs. Hawley-Crowles sought her bed that morning the east was red with the winter sun. “The loss of the pearls is bad enough,” she exclaimed in conclusion, glowering over the young girl who sat before her, “for I paid a good three thousand for the string! But, in addition, to scandalize me before the world––oh, how could you? And this unspeakable Jude––and that awful house––heavens, girl! Who would believe your story if it should get out?” The worried woman’s face was bathed in cold perspiration.
“But––she saved me from––from that place,” protested the harassed Carmen. “She was poor and cold––I could see that. Why should I have things that I don’t need when others are starving?”
Mrs. Hawley-Crowles shook her weary head in despair. Her sister, Mrs. Reed, who had sat fixing the girl with her cold eyes throughout the stormy interview following their return from the ball, now offered a suggestion. “The thing to do is to telephone immediately to all the newspapers, and say that her beads were stolen last night.”
“But they weren’t stolen,” asserted the girl. “I gave them to her––”
“Go to your room!” commanded Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, at the limit of her endurance. “And never, under any circumstances, speak of this affair to any one––never!”
The social crown, which had rested none too securely upon the gilded wig of the dynamic Mrs. Hawley-Crowles, had been given a jolt that set it tottering.