He crossed the room as he spoke, opened the door, and went out, but presently returned with something in his hand. This something he laid on the table before Priscilla.
“Have you ever seen that before?”
“Never,” said Priscilla. “It is rather pretty.”
“It is a valuable old ornament,” said Mr Manchuri. “It was bought at Zick’s shop in the High Street at Interlaken. I gave Annie Brooke one hundred pounds for it.”
“Mr Manchuri!”
“She told me it was her own, and asked if I would buy it. I knew it was worth a good deal more than the sum I paid her; now it seems that she took me in, I have purchased Lady Lushington’s necklace; it never belonged to Annie Brooke. What is to be done?”
Priscilla sat, white as death, with her hands clasped before her.
“Did you ever,” she said at last after a very long pause, “notice in all your knowledge of mankind how from the beginning of a little act of deceit great and awful things take place? If I had not yielded to a temptation which was put before me at Mrs Lyttelton’s school, Annie would never have been a thief; there would have been no need—no need! Mr Manchuri, I feel that I am responsible for this.”
“Nothing of the kind, child. Please don’t take on in that way! It is too dreadful to hear you.”
Priscilla’s lips trembled.