Matilda knew nothing of the secret of Mrs. De Peyster's exhausted credit at her bank.
"My own money," Matilda remarked plaintively, "is all in a savings bank. I have to give thirty days' notice before I can draw a penny."
There was a brief silence. Matilda's gaze, which had several times wandered to a point a few inches below Mrs. De Peyster's throat, now fixed themselves upon this spot. She spoke hesitantly.
"There's your pearl pendant you forgot and kept on when you put on my dress to go out riding with William." It was not one of the world's famous jewels; yet was of sufficient importance to be known, in a limited circle, as "The De Peyster Pearl." "I know the chain wouldn't bring much; but you could raise a lot on the pearl from a pawnbroker."
Mrs. De Peyster tried to look shocked. "What! I take my pearl to a pawnbroker!"
"Of course, I wouldn't expect you to go to a pawnshop, ma'am," Matilda apologized. "I'd take it."
Mrs. De Peyster had a moment's picture of Matilda's laying the pearl before a pawnbroker and asking for a fraction of its worth, a mere thousand or two; and of the hard-eyed usurer glancing at it, announcing that the pearl was spoof, and offering fifty cents upon it.
"Matilda, you should know that I would not part with such an heirloom," she said rebukingly.
"But, ma'am, in a crisis like this—"
"That will do, Matilda!"