“Yes, it is a fact. The attempted burglary took place last night, between ten and eleven o’clock. Fortunately, as I say, it was in this case only an attempted burglary. The old butler gave the alarm, and the ruffians decamped without doing much mischief. They had only just got into the butler’s pantry, and had not even begun to attack the safe. I am told that they made off with some spoons and a few other articles of plate, but nothing really worth speaking about. The case was very different at Castle Stewart, and, unless the police get quickly on their scent, the mischief will never be repaired. Poor Lady Arabella is, I hear, inconsolable. She has lost, among other treasures, her famous rose diamond.”
“The police are sure to find the brutes in the end,” said Rowton. He came close to Nance as he spoke, and softly rearranged the setting of one of her sleeves. “Did you really say that Lady Arabella had lost her rose diamond?” he said, turning to Lady Georgina.
“Yes; the old family heirloom, estimated as worth quite sixty thousand pounds.”
“A gem of that kind will certainly be traced,” said Rowton. “Still,” he added, “as you say, the whole thing is preposterous. To think of men in the latter end of the nineteenth century being able to break into a house in the dead of night and take away jewels out of some of those marvellous modern safes, quite beats my comprehension. It is a good thing that we have got one of Clever’s safes here.”
“Yes; you are in luck,” said Lady Georgina. “There’s not a house in the whole country which contains so much plate and valuables as this.”
“True,” said Rowton, tapping his fingers on the back of Nancy’s chair. “Well,” he added, starting as if from a reverie, “as we have the treasures we must use them. There will be a good lot of plate out to-night, and Nance must wear her jewels—or, at least, jewels suitable to her dress. I’ll go and fetch them.”
He left the room.
In a few moments he returned with an old leather case, which he unlocked, and exhibited before Lady Georgina’s delighted eyes a magnificent selection of pearls, rubies, and diamonds.
“Pearls are the right ornaments for that dress,” he said, glancing at his young wife, “and I think,” he added, “I have got the very thing.”
As he spoke he touched a secret spring in the box. A drawer flew open, revealing a single string of pearls, each nearly the size of a robin’s egg. Rowton lifted it out and clasped it round Nancy’s soft white neck.