“No, no, sir, of course not, but it’s best to make all safe.”
Rowton stood very upright, with an inscrutable smile on his lips which Nancy remembered by-and-by, as Mrs. Ferguson locked the door, and drew down the venetian blind. The room was now in semi-darkness, but there was plenty of light to see the brilliancy of the magnificent diamond necklet, which he presently lifted out of its velvet case.
“Here,” he said to Nance, “this is yours.”
“Mine?” she answered, her colour coming and going.
“Yes, yours—you shall wear it at the ball. There are heaps of other things, but I flatter myself that the necklet has scarcely its second, certainly not in the county, and perhaps not in the kingdom. I’ll give you its history some day. Ah! it could tell several tales if it could but speak! Here are rubies—magnificent, are they not?”
“Yes, yes,” said Nancy; “how they shine, they seem to fascinate me.”
“Jewels of such value often have that effect on people,” said Rowton. “What is the matter, Mrs. Ferguson? You look quite scared!”
“I never knew those things were here,” said Mrs. Ferguson. “It’s a-tempting of Providence—they ought not to be in the house, that they ought not. It’s enough to frighten me into leaving my situation.”
“What! you would leave us?” said Rowton.
“No, no, sir, you know I would not; but to have diamonds and rubies like those! why, they flash so it is enough to tempt one. There’s something awful uncanny about them. Oh! I don’t say that they are not beautiful; but they look like evil eyes fastening on one—they ought not to be here, sir, in a lonely country house—they ought not, really.”