downstairs to see what Aunt Julia has to say about it all.'
A shudder, as if from some electric shock, shook Sir Thomas. He
leaped to his feet.
'Spencer,' he cried, 'I forbid you to say a word to your aunt.'
'Oh!' said his lordship. 'You do, do you?'
Sir Thomas shivered.
'She would never let me hear the last of it.'
'I bet she wouldn't. I'll go and see.'
'Stop!'
'Well?'
Sir Thomas dabbed at his forehead with his handkerchief. He dared
not face the vision of Lady Julia in possession of the truth. At one
time, the fear lest she might discover the harmless little deception
he had practised had kept him awake at night, but gradually, as the
days went by and the excellence of the imitation stones had
continued to impose upon her and upon everyone else who saw them,
the fear had diminished. But it had always been at the back of his
mind. Even in her calmer moments, his wife was a source of mild
terror to him. His imagination reeled at the thought of what depths
of aristocratic scorn and indignation she would plumb in a ease like
this.
'Spencer,' he said, 'I insist that you shall not inform your aunt of
this!'
'What? You want me to keep my mouth shut? You want me to become an
accomplice in this beastly, low-down deception? I like that!'
'The point,' said Jimmy, 'is well taken. Noblesse oblige, and all
that sort of thing. The blood of the Dreevers boils furiously at the
idea. Listen! You can hear it sizzling.'
Lord Dreever moved a step nearer the door.
'Stop!' cried Sir Thomas again. 'Spencer!'
'Well?'
'Spencer, my boy, it occurs to me that perhaps I have not always
treated you very well--'
''Perhaps!' 'Not always!' Great Scott, I'll have a fiver each way on
both those. Considering you've treated me like a frightful kid
practically ever since you've known me, I call that pretty rich!
Why, what about this very night, when I asked you for a few pounds?'
'It was only the thought that you had been gambling--'
'Gambling! How about palming off faked diamonds on Aunt Julia for a
gamble?'
'A game of skill, surely?' murmured Jimmy.
'I have been thinking the matter over,' said Sir Thomas, 'and, if
you really need the--was it not fifty pounds?'
'It was twenty,' said his lordship. 'And I don't need it. Keep it.
You'll want all you can save for a new necklace.'
His fingers closed on the door-handle.
'Spencer, stop!'
'Well?'
'We must talk this over. We must not be hasty.'
Sir Thomas passed the handkerchief over his forehead.
