“I know what you are wanting to do; I know what is in your head, you silly Mabel,” said Annie at this juncture.
Lady Lushington looked up. “What is it?” she asked.
“Oh,” said Annie, “it is that necklace—that wonderful, amazing bargain.”
Lady Lushington pricked up her ears. She could not—and all her friends were aware of the fact—ever resist a bargain. She would have gone from one end of London to the other to secure the most useless old trash if she was firmly convinced in her own mind that she had to get it as a bargain. She now, therefore, sat up with sparkling eyes, and Mrs Priestley and her bill were as absolutely forgotten as though they had never existed.
“There are no bargains at Interlaken,” was her next remark.
“Oh, are there not?” said Annie. “Mabel and I know something very different from that.”
“What is it, my dear? What is it?”
“Well,” said Annie, “it was I who found it out. I showed it to May yesterday. You know Zick the jeweller in the little High Street?”
“Of course; his shop is full of rubbish.”
“There is a necklace there which is not rubbish,” said Annie, “and the best of it is that he is not a bit aware of its value himself.”