Beaumanoir, it seemed, was quite equal to the occasion.
"I can guarantee the impregnability of the fire-proof safe in my muniment room," he replied with alacrity. "If you will come with me, we will lock it up at once."
Sturdily disregarding the badinage of his wife and Leonie for thinking robbery possible at Prior's Tarrant, the Senator followed the Duke, and was conducted by him along many corridors to a stone-floored chamber lined with shelves full of dusty archives, and furnished only with a carved oak table and a few worm-eaten chairs. But, what was more to the purpose, a brand-new safe, resplendent in green and gold, the very latest patent of the most eminent manufacturers, occupied an imposing position at the far end. Producing a key, the Duke unlocked the safe, with no result till a touch on a hidden spring caused the heavy steel door to roll slowly outwards. The interior was nearly filled with parchment-bound volumes exactly like those on the shelves, but there was plenty of room for the box.
The Senator promptly placed his precious charge in the vacant space, and heaved a sigh of relief.
"It ought to be all right there," he said.
"It ought to be," Beaumanoir echoed, as he set the mechanism in motion. And when the heavy door had slid noiselessly back into position, he turned the key and pocketed it with an air of achievement. "Come, Mr. Sherman," he said lightly, "let us go and rejoin the ladies. Now that we have got that safely housed we shall both feel much—er—more comfortable, shan't we?"
[CHAPTER XIX—In the Crypt]
Late on the evening of Senator Sherman's arrival at Prior's Tarrant he was alone with General Sadgrove in the smoking-room, the Duke of Beaumanoir and Forsyth having avowedly gone up to bed. Under the influence of the genial American, and with the Duke himself in a more expansive mood, dinner and the subsequent reunion in the tapestry-room had been prolonged later than recently, and the chiming clock on the mantelpiece tinkled out the hour of midnight as the Senator put the question:
"Who the dickens is that Talmage Eglinton woman, Jem?"
The General started, but affected a carelessness which he was far from feeling in the trite reply that "Goodness only knew." He proceeded, however, to temper the crudity of the remark with the information that the lady in question was staying in London for the season, professed to hail from Chicago, and was reputed wealthy.