“Why wait? Send for it now. I’d like to see for myself, if there is anything: you see, you’ve roused a woman’s curiosity; I want to know. Let me send Jane.”
Without waiting for his consent, Alison summoned the maid. “Jane,” said she, “I want you to go to Mr. Staff’s stateroom—”
“Excuse me,” Staff interrupted. “Find the steward named Orde and ask him for the bandbox I gave him to take care of. Then bring it here, please.”
“Yes, sir,” said Jane; and forthwith departed.
“And now—while we’re waiting,” suggested Alison—“the play, if you please.”
“Not yet,” said Staff. “I’ve something else to talk about that I’d forgotten. Manvers, the purser—”
“Good Heavens!” Alison interrupted in exasperation. She rose, with a general movement of extreme annoyance. “Am I never to hear the last of that man? He’s been after me every day, and sometimes twice a day.... He’s a personified pest!”
“But he’s right, you know,” said Staff quietly.
“Right! Right about what?”
“In wanting you to let him take care of that necklace—the what-you-may-call-it thing—the Cadogan collar.”