“This is what we call the Corinthian’s Room,” he explained as he ushered them into it. “It was my grandfather’s favourite spot in the house, and it got its name from him. He was one of the Regency bucks—no worse than the rest of them, perhaps, but a hard liver and a hard gambler in his day. An eccentric, too, like most of them. I can show you one of his eccentricities in a moment, if you care to see it.”
The room was about forty feet square, with a huge stone fireplace. A great cupboard of oak occupied part of one wall. Another wall was hung with an aged tapestry representing Diana pursuing a stag. The floor was of marble slabs, mainly white; but in the centre, black squares of marble had been introduced so as to make a gigantic chess-board pattern. Opposite the fireplace was a narrow and shallow niche filled with a glass case.
Rollo Dangerfield switched on the electric lights and led the visitors towards the recess. As they came near it, they saw within the case a bell of faintly tinted glass, under which lay, on a velvet bed, an ancient ornament.
“That is the Dangerfield Talisman,” said old Rollo, pointing to the case. “You can see what it is: one of those golden armlets which were worn in the olden times. It’s too heavy for our modern tastes, I’m afraid. You would hardly care to carry that, Miss Cressage.”
He turned to Eileen with a faint smile.
“It’s very heavy for an ornament—something over a pound, I believe,” he went on, as his guests drew nearer to look closely at the jewel. “Of course, the value of the gold is nothing to speak of, perhaps under a hundred pounds. The stones are of more interest in some people’s eyes. There are eight of them in all—you can see the others reflected in the mirror at the back, if you look closely.”
Mrs. Caistor Scorton examined the Talisman with an appraising eye.
“I agree with you. It’s too heavy in the design.”
Eileen Cressage bent forward and seemed to compare the size of the ornament with her own white arm.
“If a girl wore that,” she said, “she must have been splendid. It’s not a bit clumsy. She must have been slim, if anything, with small hands, or she couldn’t have got it over them.”