“Am I to help in the selection? Really!” he exclaimed, and leaned forward with such alacrity that he overturned the chair upon which the deeds were lying, and scattered them on the floor.
“Oh, I am so sorry! Tut, tut, how clumsy of me!” he exclaimed, apologetically, and he went down on his knees and gathered up the papers.
“Let them alone, for Heaven’s sake!” snarled the marquis, with cold irritation.
“Yes, yes, I’ll just pick them up,” murmured Spenser Churchill, and with his back to the other two, he rapidly examined each deed as he placed it on the chair. “Now, then,” and he came to the table. “Ah! these are some of the Stoyle jewels! How exquisite they are, and what a pity they should have been hidden away so long! How nice it is to reflect that they will soon adorn our beautiful Lady Grace; eh, dear Cecil?”
Lord Cecil did not answer, but moodily took the jewels from their respective cases, and held them up for the marquis’ inspection.
He eyed them with his usual cold impassibility, but presently Lord Cecil held up a suite of pearls. It was an antique and evidently priceless set, and Cecil was regarding them with a listless interest when suddenly a strange idea flashed across his mind that he had seen them before; and yet he knew that he could not have done so. The last person upon whose neck and wrists that priceless suite of antique gems had shone was the ill-fated marchioness, whom he had never seen, and whose end was still a mystery to him. He was convinced that he had never seen them before, and yet he seemed to remember them.
“Beautiful, beautiful!” murmured Spenser Churchill, but looking at his companion’s face instead of the jewels with a watchful scrutiny.
“Yes, they are,” said Lord Cecil, and he turned the remaining jewels over as if searching for something.
“What are you looking for?” demanded the marquis, his eyes fixed with a strange expression upon the pearls in Lord Cecil’s hands.
“I am looking for the ring. I suppose there ought to be one to make the set complete? There is everything else here.”