"Then it's true about----"

"About him? Of course it is."

"Oh! I thought she had made it up, shamelessly, because she knew it couldn't be contradicted."

"It could have been contradicted easily enough if it hadn't been true.

Everybody has known about it for years."

"But she told the maid the pearls were sham ones."

"I dare say she did. But they weren't."

"Then there is really a doubt whether she did steal the necklace?"

"Oh, I don't think so. It makes it all the more likely. She would think, if it was found out she had got rid of single pearls, she could explain it by her own necklace. The mistake she made was in not being satisfied with taking the pearls. If she had left that rotten little star alone, which can't have been worth more than a hundred pounds or so, I doubt if they would have brought it home to her."

"But she may have taken the star, and not have had time to find the necklace, when Joan came in."

"Oh no. If she had been in the middle of it Joan would have caught her at it. There was the stone to push back, as well as the panel to shut.

Besides, the necklace went. Who did take it, if she didn't? n.o.body else knew."

"Oh, it's plain enough, of course. I haven't a doubt about it. But I thought you meant that there was some doubt."

"No. I only meant there might have been, if she hadn't taken the star.

Of course, what she did was to get rid of those pearls as well as her own. She hasn't known which way to turn for money for ever so long.

She went out of favour in _that_ quarter a couple of years ago, or more."

"Did she make any attempt to get her story backed up?"

"Moved heaven and earth, but found the doors shut. She found herself up against the police over there. They told her that if she dared to whisper such a story she would get into more serious trouble than she was in already. She's got pluck, you know. She must have seen it was no good, but she was in a royal rage, and made her people bring it up, out of spite. They say there were hints given; but I doubt that--in a court of law. Anyhow, they wouldn't have it, and it didn't do her any good."

"Well, it's a most unsavoury story altogether," said the Squire. "The woman's in prison now, and she richly deserves it."

He and d.i.c.k discussed the matter for another hour, and when the Squire was helped up to bed he repeated his injunctions to Mrs. Clinton that it was not to be mentioned in the house again.

BOOK II

CHAPTER I

BOBBY TRENCH IS ASKED TO KENCOTE

"Well, old fellow, I think you might."

It was Bobby Trench who spoke, in a voice of injured pleading.

Humphrey laughed. "My dear chap," he said, "I would, like a shot; but, to be perfectly honest with you, you haven't succeeded in commending yourself to the Governor, and, after all, it's his house and not mine."

They were driving to a meet of hounds. Humphrey had so far taken to heart his father's criticisms upon his metropolitan mode of life that he had let his flat for the winter and taken a hunting box in Northamptonshire, at which Bobby Trench was a frequent visitor. He was being asked by his friend to repeat the invitation he had given him some years before, to stay at Kencote for some country b.a.l.l.s, and he was kindly but firmly resisting the request.

"I suppose you know what I want to go there for?"

"Well, I can form a rough guess. As far as I'm concerned, I should welcome the idea; but I won't disguise it from you that the Governor wouldn't."

"Well, hang it! I may have trod on his corns--though I certainly never meant to, and I like him and all that--but you can't say that I'm not all right. I'm an only son, and all that sort of thing. I don't see how he could expect to get anybody better."

"Do you really mean business, Bobby?"

"Yes, I do; if I can hit it off with her. She's bowled me over. She's as pretty as paint, and as bright and clever as they make 'em.

Sweet-tempered and kind-hearted too; and I like that about a girl. She was as nice as possible to my old Governor; took a lot of trouble about him. He thinks the world of her. I tell you, he'd be as pleased as Punch."

"Have you said anything to him?"

"No, not yet. To tell you the truth--I'm a modest fellow, though I'm not always given the credit for it--I'm not in the least certain whether she'll see it in the same light as I do. I dare say that's what's brought it on, you know. They've been after me for years--it's only natural, I suppose--but what these old dowagers, and lots of the young women themselves too, don't seem to understand is that a man doesn't _like_ being run after. It puts him off. That's human nature.

Well, I needn't tell _you_ that it's me that's got to do all the running this time; and it's a pleasant change. I suppose she's never said anything to you about me, has she?"

Humphrey laughed. He remembered a few of the things that Joan had said to him about his friend.

"She looks on you as a stupendous joke so far," he said. "Still, she's hardly more than a kid."

"Oh, I know. Tell you the truth, when I first felt myself drawn that way, I said, 'No, Robert. Plenty of time yet. If you feel the same in a couple of years' time, you can let yourself go.' But I don't know.

Some other fellow might come along; and I'm not fool enough to think I've made such an impression that I can afford to keep away and let my hand play itself. No, what I want is to get my chance; I know now what I'm going to do with it, and I tell you I'm keener than I've ever been about anything in my life. Look here, Humphrey, you've got to get me down to Kencote somehow after Christmas. I never see her anywhere else. You ought not to keep those girls shut up as you do, you know."

"_I_ keep them shut up! You talk as if I were the head of my respected family. Well, look here. If it has really gone as far as you say it has, you'd better write to the Governor. I tell you plainly, he doesn't think much of _you_; but he's an old friend of your father's, and he'd probably be no more averse to seeing one of his daughters marry a future peer than anybody else would. It wouldn't go all the way with him, but it would go some of the way."

"No, thanks. That's not my way of doing things. I want to be loved for myself. If he did take to the idea, it wouldn't do me any good to be shoved forward in that sort of light. Besides, to tell you the truth, I don't believe I should be half so keen if I was asked down with that idea."

"Oh, well!" said Humphrey with a spurt of offence. "If that's how you feel about it----! I don't care a d.a.m.n about your peerage, and all that sort of thing; I was only thinking it might help you over a fence with the Governor. My young sister is good enough for any fellow."

"I know that. I should consider myself jolly lucky if she took me.

You needn't get shirty. It's just because she is the girl I want that I'm not going to lose any of the fun of winning off my own bat."

"I'll see what I can do," said Humphrey, after further conversation.

"But if you go to Rome you've got to do as Rome does. You know what my Governor is; and he's got a perfect right to run his own show as it suits him, and not as it suits other people. As far as I'm concerned, I've come to feel that Kencote is a precious sight nicer house to go to than a great many. It's different, and the others are all just the same. You've got to keep to the rules, but if you do you have a very good time. It's a pleasant rest."

"Oh, I know. I feel just the same as you about it. It reminds you of the days of your childhood, and your mother's knee, and all that sort of thing. Besides, they do you top-hole; I will say that. I'm old enough to appreciate it now; of course, five or six years ago I dare say I did think it a bit dull, and I may have shown it, though I never meant to rub your old Governor up the wrong way. Still, it will be quite different now. I'll teach in the Sunday school if he wants me to."

"If you go, you must observe strict punctuality as to meals, and you must do without games on Sunday, and bally-ragging generally. That's about all, and it isn't so very desperate."

"Not a bit; and with your sister there it will be like heaven. Oh, you've got to get me asked, Humphrey."

"I'll do what I can. By the by, don't say a word about the Amberley business at Kencote. He doesn't like that mentioned."

"Doesn't he? Righto! It was the way your young sister showed up in that that clinched it with me. She was topping. Looked as pretty as a picture, and never let them rattle her once. They took her off the moment she'd given her evidence, and I never got the chance of a word with her. I've actually never seen her since, and that's a couple of months ago now. Well, here we are. I'm going to enjoy myself to-day."