Alison had been pacing to and fro, impatiently. Now she stopped, looking down at him without any abatement of her show of temper.
“You’re as bad as all the rest,” she complained. “I’m a woman grown, in full possession of my faculties. The collar is perfectly safe in my care. It’s here, in this room, securely locked up.”
“But someone might break in while you’re out—”
“Either Jane is here all the time, or I am. It’s never left to itself a single instant. It’s perfectly ridiculous to suppose we’re going to let anybody rob us of it. Besides, where would a thief go with it, if he did succeed in stealing it—overboard?”
“I’m willing to risk a small bet he’d manage to hide it so that it would take the whole ship’s company, and a heap of good luck into the bargain, to find it.”
“Well,” said the woman defiantly, “I’m not afraid, and I’m not going to be browbeaten by any scare-cat purser into behaving like a kiddie afraid of the dark. I’m quite competent to look after my own property, and I purpose doing so without anybody’s supervision. Now let’s have that understood, Staff; and don’t you bother me any more about this matter.”
“Thanks,” said Staff drily; “I fancy you can count on me to know when I’m asked to mind my own business.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean that—not that way, dear boy—but—”
At this juncture the maid entered with the bandbox, and Alison broke off with an exclamation of diverted interest.
“There! Let’s say no more about this tiresome jewel business. I’m sure this is going to prove ever so much more amusing. Open it, Jane, please.”