“Oh, yes, you have,” he said, in a hard voice. “Now tell me. What have you got of real value?”
“I tell you I have nothing.”
“That’s a lie,” he declared. “You’ve got something you don’t want to part with—something you value very much.”
She was silent and stood there pale and trembling before him. He saw her hesitation, and knew that his allegation was the truth.
“Come, out with it! I mustn’t stay here any longer. We shall be seen,” he said. “What have you got?”
She bit her blanched lip.
“My pearls,” she replied in a voice scarcely above a whisper.
“What pearls?”
“Matched pearls which my husband gave me for my birthday.”
“Valuable—eh?”