“I’ll do nothing of the sort,” answered Mrs. Temple, coldly.
“What, you’ll let them have the diamonds!” screamed Mrs. Layton, in absolute despair.
“The diamonds are heirlooms, so I suppose John Temple’s wife—if he has one—has a right to wear them,” answered Mrs. Temple, contemptuously. “I will have nothing touched until John Temple arrives.”
“Then you’ll lose everything! Do you suppose that low people like these Churchills will not seize whatever they can get? At all events, secure the jewels and the money in the house.”
“Will you go away and leave me alone!” cried Mrs. Temple, passionately. “Surely on a day like this—” And then she suddenly burst into tears. Even to her wayward mind, this greed was shocking in the house of death.
Her mother left her with uplifted hands after this outburst. But Mrs. Layton was still determined not to waste her time. She therefore hurried into the poor squire’s dressing-room and snatched up and secured on her person his diamond studs, which were lying in a tray on the toilet table. Then she looked eagerly around for his keys. He was sure to have money locked away somewhere, she was thinking. But she could not find the keys, and after a vain search for them she opened a linen drawer and turned out half a dozen or so of pocket handkerchiefs.
“Poor man, he will never want them more,” she reflected; “and I have such bad colds every winter they’ll come in nice and handy, and the servants were sure to have stolen them.”
Having pocketed these also, she went down-stairs to see Mr. Churchill. She found him closeted with her husband, the vicar. The two men were discussing the best plan how immediately to inform John Temple of his uncle’s death. Mr. Churchill had told the vicar of the banker’s letter, and had suggested this as a means of communication with the new heir.
The letter would probably be in the drawers of the writing-table in the library, Mr. Churchill had said, but the vicar—a timid man—had shrunk a little back from approaching a spot where so lately had lain the poor squire’s gray head. Mr. Churchill, however, urged that it should be done, and they were talking it over when Mrs. Layton entered the room.