"You must get them and hand them over."
"To whom?"
"To me."
"What for?"
"They will be worn by the Countess of Ormont"
"Who "s she?"
"The lady who bears the t.i.tle."
"The only Countess of Ormont I know of is your mother and mine, Rowsley; and she"s dead."
"The Countess of Ormont I speak of is alive."
Lady Charlotte squared to him. "Who gives her the t.i.tle?"
"She bears it by right."
"Do you mean to say, Rowsley, you have gone and married the woman since we came up from Steignton?"
"She is my wife."
"Anyhow, she won"t have our family jewels."
"If you had swallowed them, you"d have to disgorge."
"I don"t give up our family jewels to such people."
"Do you decline to call on her?"
"I do: I respect our name and blood."
"You will send the order to your bankers for them to deliver the jewels over to me at my house this day."
"Look here, Rowsley; you"re gone cracked or senile. You "re in the hands of one of those clever wenches who catch men of your age. She may catch you; she shan"t lay hold of our family jewels: they stand for the honour of our name and blood."
"They are to be at my house-door at four o"clock this afternoon."
"They"ll not stir."
"Then I go down to order your bankers and give them the order."
"My bankers won"t attend to it without the order from me."
"You will submit to the summons of my lawyers."
"You"re bent on a public scandal, are you?"
"I am bent on having the jewels."
"They are not yours; you "ve no claim to them; they are heirlooms in our family. Things most sacred to us are attached to them. They belong to our history. There "s the tiara worn by the first Countess of Ormont.
There "s the big emerald of the necklace-pendant--you know the story of it. Two rubies not counted second to any in England. All those diamonds!
I wore the cross and the two pins the day I was presented after my marriage."
"The present Lady Ormont will wear them the day she is presented."
"She won"t wear them at Court."
"She will."
"Don"t expect the Lady Ormont of tradesmen and footmen to pa.s.s the Lord Chamberlain."
"That matter will be arranged for next season. Now I "ve done."
"So have I; and you have my answer, Rowsley." They quitted their chairs.
"You decline to call on my wife?" said the earl.
Lady Charlotte replied: "Understand me, now. If the woman has won you round to legitimize the connection, first, I"ve a proper claim to see her marriage lines. I must have a certificate of her birth. I must have a testified account of her life before you met her and got the worst of it. Then, as the case may be, I "ll call on her.
"You will behave yourself when you call."
"But she won"t have our family jewels."
"That affair has been settled by me."
"I should be expecting to hear of them as decorating the person of one of that man Morsfield"s mistresses."
The earl"s brow thickened. "Charlotte, I smacked your cheek when you were a girl."
"I know you did. You might again, and I wouldn"t cry out. She travels with that Morsfield; you "ve seen it. He goes boasting of her. Gypsy or not, she "s got queer ways."
"I advise you, you had better learn at once to speak of her respectfully."
"I shall have enough to go through, if what you say"s true, with questions of the woman"s antecedents and her people, and the date of the day of this marriage. When was the day you did it? I shall have to give an answer. You know cousins of ours, and the way they "ll be pressing, and comparing ages and bawling rumours. None of them imagined my brother such a fool as to be wheedled into marrying her. You say it"s done, Rowsley. Was it done yesterday or the day before?"
Lord Ormont found unexpectedly that she struck on a weak point. Married from the first? Why not tell me of it? He could hear her voice as if she had spoken the words. And how communicate the pell-mell of reasons?
"You"re running vixen. The demand I make is for the jewels," he said.
"You won"t have them, Rowsley--not for her."
"You think of compelling me to use force?"
"Try it."