“That will be time sufficient. But we will desire—ah! I will myself speak to him.”
Mademoiselle entered the wagonette, and stepping up to the coachman, asked him to drive slowly. She did this in such a very insinuating manner that he felt he could do all in the world to oblige her, and accordingly, let his horses drop into a walk. This the animals were not disinclined to do on so hot an evening.
“Now,” said Penelope, absolutely unsuspicious, and turning her fair face—which owing to her recent happiness, was really becoming quite good-looking—in the direction of her governess. “What have you to say, Mademoiselle?”
“This, mon enfant. I will tell it to you briefly. You know the story of the petites Hungerfords—the little one called Nellie, that enfant who suffered with a suffering so severe for the loss of her inestimable trinket—the bangle of the purest gold set with a turquoise most exquisite.”
“Yes, yes,” exclaimed Penelope, “I know all about it. The bangle was lost; has it been found?”
“Softly—chérie—I am coming to that. It was lost, was it not, on the very day of the grande fête at Hazlitt Chase?”
“Yes,” said Penelope, “I believe Mrs Hungerford thinks she lost it in the railway carriage in which she came to the Chase.”
“Précisément: you have the histoire in all its accuracy,” answered Mademoiselle. “And there was, mon enfant, was there not, an announcement of the loss in the newspapers, the so great newspapers of London, and the petits journaux of the smaller towns? And was there not that announcement with the reward attached even inserted, for the sake of the more safety, in the journal here—the petit journal of Marshlands-on-the-Sea?”
“I daresay you are right,” said Penelope, “but I really am not specially interested, nor have I followed what the Hungerfords have done.”
“Ah! ma chère—you say you are not interested once. But that will pass. That state of your mind will quickly arrive when you will be interested; for there is much to concern you in this matter. Behold, mon enfant, what I, your French governess, have discovered.”