‘I was, but he unfortunately recognized me. A pity. It would have given me a good deal of pleasure to have put him to sleep. However, I dare say it has all turned out for the best. I should have been obliged to have tied him up somewhere, which would have been a nuisance, and might have led to future complications. I shall be obliged to leave you for a short space this morning, by the way.’
‘Do, please, sir, stop being provoking!’ begged Pen. ‘Did you see Jimmy Yarde last night, and what happened?’
‘Oh yes, I saw him! Really, I don’t think anything of particular moment happened.’
‘He didn’t try to murder you?’
‘Nothing so exciting. He tried merely to recover the diamonds. When he – er – failed to do so, we enjoyed a short conversation, after which he left the inn, as unobtrusively as he had entered it.’
‘Through the window, you mean. Well, I am glad you let him go, for I could not help liking him. But what are we going to do now, if you please?’
‘We are now going to eliminate Beverley,’ replied Sir Richard, carving the ham.
‘Oh, the stammering man! How shall we do that? Hesounded very disagreeable, but I don’t think we should eliminate him in a rough way, do you?’
‘By no means. Leave the matter in my hands, and I will engage for it that he will be eliminated without the least pain or inconvenience to anyone.’
‘Yes, but then there is the necklace,’ Pen pointed out. ‘I feel that before we attend to anything else we ought to get rid of it. Only fancy if you were to be found with it in your pocket!’
‘Very true. But I have arranged for that. The necklace belongs to Beverley’s mother, and he shall restore it to her.’
Pen laid down her knife and fork. ‘Then that explains it all! I thought that stammering man had more to do with it than you would tell me. I suppose he hired Jimmy Yarde, and that other person, to steal the necklace?’ She wrinkled her brow. ‘I don’t wish to say rude things about your friends, Richard, but it seems to me very wrong of him – most improper!’
‘Most,’ he agreed.
‘Evendastardly!’
‘I think we might call it dastardly.’
‘Well, that is what it seems to me. I see now that there is a great deal in what Aunt Almeria says. She considers that there are terrible pitfalls in Society.’
Sir Richard shook his head sadly. ‘Alas, too true!’
‘And vice,’ said Pen awfully. ‘Profligacy, and extravagance, you know.’
‘I know.’
She picked up her knife and fork again. ‘It must be very exciting,’ she said enviously.
‘Far be it from me to destroy your illusions, but I feel I should inform you that stealing one’s mother’s diamonds is not the invariable practice of members of thehaut ton.’
‘Of course not. I knowthat!’ said Pen with dignity. She added in persuasive tones: ‘Shall I come with you when you go to meet the stammering man?’
‘No,’ answered Sir Richard, not mincing matters.
‘I thought you would say that. I wish I were really a man.’
‘I still should not take you with me.’
‘Then you would be very selfish, and disagreeable, and altogether abominable!’ declared Pen roundly.
‘I think I am,’ reflected Sir Richard, recalling his sister’s homily.
The large eyes softened instantly, and as they scanned Sir Richard’s face a slight flush mounted to Pen’s cheeks. She bent over her plate again, saying in a gruff little voice: ‘No, you are not. You are very kind, and obliging, and I am sorry I teased you.’
Sir Richard looked at her. He seemed to be about to speak, but she forestalled him, adding buoyantly: ‘And when I tell Piers how well you have looked after me, he will be most grateful to you, I assure you.’
‘Will he?’ said Sir Richard, at his dryest. ‘I am afraid I was forgetting Piers.’
