"How extraordinary!" went on Crow with emphasis; "the same letters that were on the safety-pin brooch--and a tiny little coronet. It's awfully pretty, but--who on earth!"
She looked up at Pamela; their eyes met, and Christobel was acutely conscious that Pam knew something. She flushed scarlet; then the colour fled and left her very pale; her clear eyes shifted from Crow's gaze, and in their depths was an uneasy, deprecating shadow.
"Do you know anything about this?" asked Christobel.
"About the handkerchief, no. Oh no, I don't. How could it come here?"
It was perfectly true that she had no idea how the handkerchief came there, but it was not the sort of truth that was natural to Pamela Romilly, and as she said the horrid words she felt sick with herself. In a lightning moment she resolved to go to the Countess and tell her that she intended to state the whole position to Christobel--she would do it; she would warn the girl and have it all above-board.
Silence fell like a stone between the sisters. Christobel realized that Pamela had some secret; Pamela saw that she did.
Slowly the elder girl folded up the handkerchief and put it in her skirt pocket.
"What shall you do--about it?" asked Pamela nervously.
"I shall give it to Mother, I suppose. When one considers that the letters and the coronet are the same--well----"
Her tone was cold--she was hurt because Pam would not speak.