“I suppose you think me a queer old lady,” Mrs. Marborough resumed. “Perhaps I am, but I have a very good reason for some of the things I do. I came to Riverview to search for something which has been lost many years.”
“Something hidden during the Civil War?” inquired Louise breathlessly.
“No, my dear, an object secreted by my sister, Virginia. Since you girls already have learned so much I will tell you all. Perhaps you have heard of the Marborough pearls?”
Penny and Louise shook their heads.
“I forget that you are so very young,” Mrs. Marborough said. “Your mothers would remember. At any rate, the necklace was handed down in our family for many generations, always to the daughter who was the first to marry. Virginia, my younger sister, dreamed and hoped that the pearls would go to her. Naturally, I shared a similar desire. As it came about, I was the first of the family to marry.”
“Then you received the necklace?” Louise commented.
“It should have gone to me, but my sister was determined I never should win such a victory over her. In a fit of anger she hid the pearls. Father tried to force her to tell what she had done with them, but she was very headstrong. She ran away from home, married a scamp, and sailed with him to South America. She died there less than two years after my own marriage.”
“What became of the pearls?” Penny asked eagerly.
“Our family believed that she took the necklace with her. For many years we assumed that Virginia’s worthless husband had obtained possession of it. He denied any knowledge of the pearls, but we never accepted his story as true. Then, a few weeks ago, a letter came from South America. It had been written by Virginia’s husband shortly before his death.”
“He confessed to the theft of the necklace?” Louise asked, trying to speed the story.