“I beg your pardon,” she interrupted, “but Isabel has returned with the box for which you came, and as we are extremely busy, you will kindly excuse us from a longer interview.”
She arose as if to leave the room, but Adrian advanced a step or two, and said, firmly:
“Not so, madam; you have done my wife altogether too much injury, and covered up your iniquity too long to admit of my keeping silence now. You have sneered and tried my patience beyond endurance to-day with your insinuations concerning a ‘clandestine marriage,’ and it is but just and right that she should be exonerated in the presence of Lady Randal from all blame for what you, by your cruelty, drove her to.”
“Good heavens! Adrian explain yourself. I am all in a maze! What do you mean by all this talk about complicity, iniquity, and cruelty?” demanded Lady Randal, looking from one to another in perplexity.
Adrian, in the fewest words possible, told the story of the jewels, and her ladyship knew before he had finished that every word he uttered was truth.
She, too, began to grow pale and nervous, as she realized that his wife was the niece of the woman whom she had so deeply injured, and conscience stung her sharply as these memories of the past were revived.
“Mrs. Dredmond,” said Lady Dunforth, who had scarcely spoken yet, “will you please open that casket, and allow me to look at its contents?”
Brownie lifted the lid, for the lock had been forced after she had taken the key, and it was only fastened by the spring, and revealed the glittering treasures it contained.
Lady Randal uttered a cry, and gasped out:
“I might have known it in the first place. I thought I had seen them before, especially those corals.”