"You think it was----"
"Mrs. Hughes. What else can I think? She is very nice, and I could not have believed it of her. I suppose the sight of the jewels, combined with her poverty, must have proved the temptation. I shall get back the emeralds, but we must screen her."
"Miss Deveen, I don"t believe it was Mrs. Hughes."
"Not believe it?"
"No. Her face is not that of one who would do such a thing. You might trust it anywhere."
"Oh, Johnny! there you are at your faces again!"
"Well, I was never deceived in any face yet. Not in one that I _thoroughly_ trusted."
"If Mrs. Hughes did not take the studs, and bring them to London, and pledge them, who else could have brought them? They were taken to Mr.
James"s on the 27th, remember."
"That"s the puzzle of it."
"We must find out Mrs. Hughes, and then contrive to bring her within sight of Mr. James."
"The Whitneys know where she lives. Anna and Helen have been to call upon her."
"Then our way is pretty plain. Mind you don"t breathe a syllable of this to mortal ear, Johnny. It might defeat our aims. Miss Cattledon, always inquisitive, will question where we have been this morning with her curious eyes; but for once she will not be satisfied."
"I should not keep her, Miss Deveen."
"Yes you would, Johnny. She is faithful; she suits me very well; and her mother and I were girls together."
It was a sight to be painted. Helen Whitney standing there in her presentation dress. She looked wonderfully well. It was all white, with a train behind longer than half-a-dozen peac.o.c.ks" tails, lace and feathers about her hair. The whole lot of us were round her; the young ones had come from the nursery, the servants peeped in at the door; Miss Cattledon had her eye-gla.s.s up; Harry danced about the room.
"Helen, my dear, I admire all very much except your necklace and bracelets," said Miss Deveen, critically. "They do not match: and do not accord with the dress."
The necklace was a row of turquoises, and did not look much: the bracelets were gold, with blue stones in the clasps. The Whitney family did not shine in jewels, and the few diamonds they possessed were on Lady Whitney to-day.
"But I had nothing else, Miss Deveen," said Helen, simply. "Mamma said these must do."
Miss Deveen took off the string of blue beads as if to examine them, and left in its place the loveliest pearl necklace ever seen. There was a scream of surprise; some of us had only met with such transformations in fairy tales.
"And these are the bracelets to match, my dear. Anna, I shall give you the same when your turn for making your curtsey to your queen comes."
Anna smiled faintly as she looked her thanks. She always seemed regularly down in spirits now, not to be raised by pearl necklaces. For the first time her sad countenance seemed to strike Tod. He crossed over.
"What is wrong, Anna?" he whispered. "Are you not well?"
"Quite well, thank you," she answered, her cheeks flushing painfully.
At this moment Sophie Chalk created a diversion. Unable to restrain her feelings longer, she burst into tears, knelt down outside Helen"s dress, and began kissing her hand and the pearl bracelet in a transport of joy.
"Oh, Helen, my dear friend, how rejoiced I am? I said upstairs that your ornaments were not worthy of you."
Tod"s eyes were glued on her. Bill Whitney called out Bravo. Sophie, kneeling before Helen in her furbelows, made a charming tableau.
"It is good acting, Tod," I said in his ear.
He turned sharply. But instead of cuffing me into next week, he just sent his eyes straight out to mine.
"Do you call it acting?"
"I am sure it is. But not for you."
"You are bold, Mr. Johnny."
But I could tell by the subdued tone and the subdued manner, that his own doubts had been at last awakened whether or not it _was_ acting.
Lady Whitney came sailing downstairs, a blaze of yellow satin; her face, with flurry, like a peony. She could hardly say a word of thanks for the pearls, for her wits had gone wool-gathering. When she was last at Court herself, Bill was a baby in long-clothes. We went out with them to the carriage; the lady"s-maid taking at least five minutes to settle the trains: and Bill said he hoped the eyes at the windows all round enjoyed the show. The postillion--an unusual sight in London--and the two men behind wore their state liveries, white and crimson; their bouquets bigger than cabbages.
"You will dance with me the first dance to-night?" Tod whispered to Sophie Chalk, as they were going in after watching the carriage away.
Sophie made a slight pause before she answered; and I saw her eyes wander out in the distance towards Bill Whitney.
"Oh, thank you," she said, with a great display of grat.i.tude. "But I think I am engaged."
"Engaged for the first dance?"
"Yes. I am so sorry."
"The second, then?"
"With the greatest pleasure."
Anna heard it all as well as I. Tod gave Sophie"s hand a squeeze to seal the bargain, and went away whistling.
Not being in the world of fashion, we did not know how other people finished up Drawing-room days (and when Helen Whitney went to Court they _were_ Drawing-rooms), but the Whitneys" programme was this: A cold collation in lieu of dinner, when Fate should bring them home again, and a ball in the evening. The ball was our joint invention. Sitting round the schoolroom fire one night we settled it for ourselves: and after Sir John and my lady had stood out well, they gave in. Not that it would be much of a ball, for they had few acquaintances in London, and the house was small.
But now, had any aid been wanted by Miss Deveen to carry out her plans, she could not have devised better than this. For the Whitneys invited (all unconsciously) Mrs. Hughes to the ball. Anna came into Miss Deveen"s after they had been sending out the invitations (only three days before the evening), and began telling her the names as a bit of gossip. She came at last to Mrs. Hughes.
"Mrs. Hughes," interrupted Miss Deveen, "I am glad of that, Anna, for I want to see her."
Miss Deveen"s seeing her would not go for much in the matter of elucidation; it was Mr. James who must see her; and the plan by which he might do so was Miss Deveen"s own. She went down and arranged it with him, and before the night came, it was all cut and dried. He and she and I knew of it; not another soul in the world.
"You will have to help me in it a little, Johnny," she said. "Be at hand to watch for Mr. James"s arrival, and bring him up to me."
We saw them come back from the Drawing-room between five and six, Helen with a brilliant colour in her cheeks; and at eight o"clock we went in.
London parties, which begin when you ought to be in your first sleep, are not understood by us country people, and eight was the hour named in the Whitneys" invitations. Cattledon was screwed into a rich sea-green satin (somebody else"s once), with a water-lily in her thin hair; and Miss Deveen wore all her diamonds. Sir John, out of his element and frightfully disconsolate, stood against the wall, his spectacles lodged on his old red nose. The thing was not in his line. Miss Deveen went up to shake hands.
"Sir John, I am rather expecting a gentleman to call on me on business to-night," she said; "and have left word for him to step in and see me here. Will you forgive the liberty?"