“Then why did you come sneaking into this room, like a thief, to get them? Why didn’t you take the matter into court, and let the judge decide in your favor?” sneered the exasperated woman, almost losing her self-control again under Brownie’s coolness and her refusal to go with her.
“I did not sneak into the room like a thief, madam. I was passing along the corridor, the door was open, and, glancing in, I saw my casket upon the table, I entered and took it, intending to inform Miss Coolidge of the fact as soon as I had it beyond her reach.”
“You say you can prove your claim. Who is this nobleman who knows so much about these jewels?” asked Mrs. Coolidge, with sudden interest.
Brownie thought a moment before answering.
She disliked to implicate his lordship in the matter if she could possibly help it; but she saw that Mrs. Coolidge was desperate about the jewels, and perhaps the power of his name might frighten her into letting them go, and the matter would drop there, so she said:
“It is Lord Dunforth!”
“Lord Dunforth!” she exclaimed, with a violent start of surprise.
Then she suddenly remembered, with a thrill that made her feel faint, Isabel’s account of her strange interview with his lordship at Lady Peasewell’s, and she began to fear that she was getting beyond her depth in this matter; and yet this very revelation made her more determined than ever to keep the jewels, at least until after Isabel’s marriage; for their absence would occasion a great hue and cry, and necessitate such awkward explanations that Sir Charles would mistrust something wrong, and then all their plans would be ruined, for he had only that day named the wedding day. Yet, if she resorted to force to keep them, Brownie, on the other hand, would instantly take active measures to recover them, and if she could, she said, prove through Lord Dunforth that they were hers, they would immediately be brought into open disgrace. Whichever way she turned, it looked dark.
There was only one way of escape from this threatening danger, and that was very hazardous; but she had resolved from the first, if worse came to worst, that she would try it, and that was why she appeared so anxious to get her into her rooms.
She stood measuring her strength against Brownie’s, while these thoughts passed through her mind, and that same cunning gleam lurked in her eyes as before.