“How can you tell that she isn’t?” said Mabel. “Why, of course she isn’t; Mrs Ogilvie’s name is not on the visitors’ list.”
The girls paced up and down.
“I got a great fright at dinner,” said Mabel after a pause; “but you helped me out of it as usual.”
“Yes; but it was an awkward moment,” said Annie. “I didn’t for a moment suppose that your aunt would keep on thinking of that necklace. I hope she won’t insist on seeing it. I am afraid, after all, even though Mrs Ogilvie is not here, we must manage to lose it.”
“Oh! I shall go wild if I have to go through that sort of thing,” was Mabel’s answer.
“Besides,” continued Annie, “the friend your aunt met may be another of those women who adore looking at bargains and old-fashioned gems. I am certain we shall have to lose it; there is no other possible way out.”
“And I know I shall die in the process,” said Mabel. “I feel myself quite wasting away.”
“You are too silly,” said Annie. “You look as bonny as ever you can look, and there isn’t a scrap of any appearance of decline about you.”
It was at that moment that Lady Lushington’s voice was heard calling in the darkness, “Mabel, come here!”
“Now what does she want?” said Mabel.