“Well, I can’t say she struck me as a sort of female Cheeryble Brother. Lord Dreever introduced me to her at the station. She seemed to bear it pluckily, but with some difficulty.”
“She’s hateful,” repeated Molly. “So is he—Sir Thomas, I mean. He’s one of those fussy, bullying little men. They both bully poor Lord Dreever till I wonder he doesn’t rebel. They treat him like a schoolboy. It makes me wild. It’s such a shame. He’s so nice and good-natured. I am so sorry for him.”
Jimmy listened to this outburst with mixed feelings. It was sweet of her to be so sympathetic; but was it merely sympathy? There had been a ring in her voice and a flush on her cheek which had suggested to Jimmy’s sensitive mind a personal interest in the down-trodden peer. Reason told him that it was foolish to be jealous of Lord Dreever. A good fellow, of course, but not to be taken seriously. The primitive man in him, on the other hand, made him hate all Molly’s male friends with an unreasoning hatred. Not that he hated Lord Dreever. He liked him. But he doubted if he could go on liking him for long if Molly were to continue in this sympathetic strain.
His affection for the absent one was not put to the test. Molly’s next remark had to do with Sir Thomas.
“The worst of it is,” she said, “father and Sir Thomas are such friends. In Paris they were always together. Father did him a very good turn.”
“How was that?”
“It was one afternoon just after we arrived. A man got into Lady Julia’s room while we were all out except father. Father saw him go into the room, and suspecting something was wrong, went in after him. The man was trying to steal Lady Julia’s jewels. He had opened the box where they were kept, and was actually holding her rope of diamonds in his hand when father found him. It’s the most magnificent thing I ever saw. Sir Thomas told father he gave a hundred thousand dollars for it.”
“But surely,” said Jimmy, “hadn’t the management of the hotel a safe for valuables?”
“Of course they had; but you don’t know Sir Thomas. He wasn’t going to trust any hotel safe. He’s the sort of man who insists on doing everything in his own way, and who always imagines he can do things better for himself than anyone else can do them for him. He had had this special box made, and would never keep the diamonds anywhere else. Naturally the thief opened it in a minute. A clever thief would have no difficulty with a thing like that.”
“What happened?”