“That would be impossible. I locked the door the instant Sir Mawson left me.”
“Ah, then, of course! Another question, please. Sir Mawson has spoken of there being ‘one single minute’ when the necklace was not directly under your eyes. When was that?”
“When I left the room, Mr. Cleek.”
“Oho! Then you did leave it, eh?”
“Yes. It was thoughtless of me, of course; but I only ran down to the foot of the staircase, when I remembered, and ran back in a perfect panic. Still I had locked the door in going out even then and the key was in my hand. It was still locked when I returned, but in that one single minute the necklace had disappeared. I was gratifying my woman’s vanity by holding it up to my throat and viewing myself in the glass just an instant before, and I remember perfectly, laying it down on the velvet lining of its open case at the time I recollected the matter which caused me to leave the room.”
“May I ask what that matter was?”
“Yes. A service I had promised to perform for Miss Eastman.”
“Miss Eastman? Who is she?”
“My son’s fiancée. She and her father are visiting us at present. Curzon met and became engaged to Miss Eastman on the occasion of her last visit to England, and this time her father is accompanying her.”
“Her last visit? Then the lady and her father are not English?”