“You’re hurting my eyes,” she said at last.
“I’m sorry,” said Jimmy. “I didn’t think. Is that better?” He turned the light from her face. Something in his voice and the apologetic haste with which he moved the lamp seemed to relax the strain of the situation. The feeling of stunned surprise began to leave her. She found herself thinking coherently again.
The relief was but momentary. Why was Jimmy in the room at that time? Why had he a lamp? What had he been doing? The questions shot from her brain like sparks from an anvil.
The darkness began to tear at her nerves. She felt along the wall for the switch and flooded the room with light.
Jimmy laid down the lantern and stood for a moment undecided. He had concealed the necklace behind him. Now he brought it forward and dangled it silently before the eyes of Molly and his lordship. Excellent as were his motives for being in that room with the necklace in his hand, he could not help feeling, as he met Molly’s startled gaze, quite as guilty as if his intentions had been quite different.
His lordship, having by this time pulled himself together to some extent, was the first to speak.
“I say, you know, what ho!” he observed, not without emotion. “What?”
Molly drew back.
“Jimmy! You were——. Oh, you can’t have been!”
“Looks jolly like it!” said his lordship judicially.