"There is no need for you to tell anything," said Lady Branwin, scornfully, "since I am capable of revealing everything."
"Perhaps," said Perry Toat, looking at her watch, "you had better get on with your story. It is growing late."
"I shall tell my story when it suits me," snarled Lady Branwin, turning on her savagely. "I am no longer the timid fool that I was. I am hard, I tell you; hard and determined in every way. Now don't say a word," she went on, imperiously throwing up her hand; "let me talk. When I finish, you can make your comments. Not that it matters to me what any of you say."
"Mother," said Audrey, imploringly, and strove to take Lady Branwin's hand.
"You are a good child, Audrey," said the elder woman, preventing the action, "but when you know all you may not be so ready to be kind to me."
"I don't care what you have done," cried Mrs. Shawe, impetuously, "you are my mother; nothing can alter the relationship between us."
"Oh, I think so," began Perry Toat. "You left the upper portion of the window open when you were conversing with Madame Coralie," she added, addressing herself to Lady Branwin, who sat looking as still and hard as any statue, "and you conversed rather loudly, so--"
"Ah!" interrupted Ralph, with a start, "is this what you kept back at Weed-on-the Sands, Miss Toat?"
"Yes," she assented calmly. "I made Miss Pearl confess that she was not asleep. When Eddy Vail entered the court and disappeared into the house--"
"I did not disappear into the house," said the scamp, rudely. "I hid in the shadow, and watched the window to see the diamonds."