“Lord Dunforth!” she repeated. “Do you know him?”
“No, madam; at least, not well enough to claim his acquaintance and protection, except in case of stern necessity; but he knows all about these jewels, and when I told my story he would know that I spoke the truth.”
“How would he know it? When did he ever see those jewels before he saw Isabel wear them?” the woman asked, inquisitively, and burning with a desire to know more about them herself.
“Madam,” Brownie answered, haughtily, “I decline answering any more questions. I insist that you let me go quietly; you can then make whatever explanation regarding the absence of these gems you may see fit. But, if you persist in giving me further trouble, I shall immediately make the whole matter public, and doubtless you know what the consequences will be.”
Mrs. Coolidge’s eyes flashed, and the young girl, catching their gleam at that instant, involuntarily shivered, they looked so evil.
“My dear Miss Douglas,” she began, politely, after a moment, “can we not temporize in this matter? You know if Isabel ceases suddenly to wear those jewels it is going to make matters very awkward for her. Could you not be persuaded, for a handsome consideration, to loan them to her until after her marriage, which will be in a little more than a month?”
Brownie’s lips curled with scorn at this proposition. The woman who could make it under the existing circumstances seemed so little and small of soul to her.
“No, madam; I think I have loaned them long enough already,” was her quiet but scathing reply.
The angry woman’s lips twitched nervously, and her hands were clinched with passion that this poor, friendless girl should dare to thwart her so—that she should dare to stand so proudly, defiantly before her, and fling out so coolly her scathing sarcasms. She grew white as the delicate lace at her throat, and her eyes burned with a lurid light which boded mischief.
“Hark,” she said, suddenly. “Somebody is coming. It may be Isabel, and we shall have a scene. Come into my room, and I will let you out through there.”