Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 42).djvu/310

The manager held out towards me a minatory finger; everyone seemed to have developed a sudden mania for pointing, particularly at me.

"You! Where have you put Mrs. Newball's pearls and Mrs. Anstruther's diamonds? Better make a clean breast of it, and no longer play the hypocrite. We will find them, if you do not tell us where they are, be sure of it. Now tell us at once."

How he thundered at me! It was most embarrassing, or it would have been if I had not been conscious that I held the key of the situation in my hand. As it was, I minded his thunder scarcely a little bit, though I always have hated being shouted at. I was very calm—certainly the calmest person there—which, of course, was not saying very much.

"I can tell you where they are, if that is what you mean."

"You know that is what I mean. Tell us at once! at once!"

He banged his fist upon the table so that that miscellaneous collection trembled. I did not tremble, though perhaps it was his intention that I should. I was growing calmer and calmer.

"In the first place, let me inform you that if you suppose I put those things in my bag—the bag is certainly mine—or had anything to do with their getting there, you are mistaken."

My words, and perhaps my manner, created a small diversion. "What impudence!" "What assurance!" "Did you ever see anything like it?" "So young and so brazen!" "The impudent baggage!" Those were some of the things which they said, which were very nice for me to have to listen to. But I was sure, from a glimpse I had caught of Mr. and Miss Sterndale, that they were not quite at their ease, and that was such a comfort.

"No lies!" thundered the manager, whose English became a little vulgar. "No foolery! No stuck-up rubbish! Tell us the truth—where are these ladies' jewels?"

"I propose to tell you the truth, if you will have a little patience." I returned him look for look; I was not the least afraid of him. "I am going to give you a little surprise." I was so conscious of that that I was beginning to feel almost amused. "I have a power of which I think none of you have any conception, especially two of you. I know what people are saying although I do not hear them; like the deaf and dumb, who know what a person is saying by merely watching his lips."

There were some very rude interruptions, to which I paid no notice whatever. An elderly man whom I had never seen before. and who spoke with an air of authority, advised them to give me a hearing. They did let me go on.

I told them what I had seen Miss Sterndale say to her brother on the balcony the morning before. It was some satisfaction to see the startled look which came upon the faces of both the brother and the sister. They made some very noisy and uncivil comments, but, as I could see how uncomfortable they were feeling, I let them make them. I went on. I told how unhappy I had been all day, and how, when I returned, I found under the bottom tray of my jewel-case the diamond pendant. How, astounded, I went down to ask Miss Sterndale why she had put it there, and how, encountering Miss Goodridge bewailing her loss, utterly taken aback, I held out to her her pendant in a manner which, I admitted, might very easily have seemed suspicious.

By this time the manager's room was in a delightful state of din. Mr. and Miss Sterndale were both of them shouting together, declaring that it was shocking that such a creature as I was should be allowed to make such monstrous insinuations. I believe, if it had not been for that grey-haired man who had suddenly assumed a position of authority, that Miss Sterndale would have made a personal assault on me. She seemed half beside herself with rage—and, I was quite sure, with something else as well.

I continued—in spite of the Sterndales. I could see that I was creating a state of perplexity in the minds of my hearers which might very shortly induce them to take up an entirely different attitude towards me. I told of the brief dialogue which had taken place between the sister and brother that very morning. And then you should have seen how the Sterndales stormed and raged.

"It seems to me," observed the grey-haired man to Mr. Sterndale, "that you protest too much, sir. If this young lady is all the things you say she is, presently you will have every opportunity of proving it. Since she is one young girl among all us grown-ups, it is only right and decent that we should hear what she has to say for herself. We can condemn her afterwards—that part will be easy."

So I went on again. There was very little to add. They knew almost as much of the rest as I did. Someone had effected a wholesale clearance of pretty nearly every valuable which the house contained. I did not pre-