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Updated: May 6, 2025
"I came to ask you to find out you're so marvellous!-why I didn't lose other things, which I really do value." The two women had been standing in the drawing room, Lady Annesley-Seton's hand still in the Countess's. But now, without speaking again, Madalena led her visitor into the room adjoining, which was fitted up much as the room at the Devonshire hotel had been for her first séance.
On this evening, however, she set both doors wide open, one which led into the living room, another leading into a corridor or hall. She could not fail to hear her husband when he came, even if he left his noisy car at the garage and walked to the house. A travelling clock on the mantelpiece Constance Annesley-Seton's gift struck nine.
"Pray don't try any further," he cut in. "My wife is not a figurine in a shop window to have her ornaments stared at and pawed over. You are an old friend of hers, Mr. Ruthven Smith, and you are my guest or rather my friend Annesley-Seton's guest therefore I will say no more. But in some countries where I have lived such an incident would have ended differently."
Annesley exclaimed when she and Knight had read the letter through. Knight glanced at his wife quizzically, opened his lips to speak, and closed them. Perhaps he thought it would be unwise as well as wrong to disturb the girl's faith in Lady Annesley-Seton's disinterestedness. "Yes, it's real sweet!" he said, exaggerating his American accent, but keeping a grave face.
Of course Annesley said yes, and meant yes. Not that she really wanted her duet with Knight to be broken up into a chorus, but she longed to succeed as a woman of the world, since that was what he wanted her to be; and she realized that Lady Annesley-Seton's help would be invaluable.
But I'm a distant relation as well as a poor one," Annesley reminded him with her old humility. "You're not poor now. And blood is thicker than water when it's in a golden cup. It's Lord and Lady Annesley-Seton's turn to play the poor relations. It seems they're stony. Even the shillings the public pay to see the place are an object to them." "Oh, I'm sorry!" exclaimed Annesley.
Her father's lost his money since then." "How can you keep such uninteresting things in your mind just now?" "They're not uninteresting. They concern you!" "Lord Annesley-Seton's affairs don't concern me, and never will."
At Lady Annesley-Seton's suggestion they drew lots for these turns, and Constance herself drew the first chance. She and the gleaming figure of the Countess went out together, and ten or twelve minutes later she returned alone. Everyone stared eagerly to see if she looked excited, and it took no stretch of imagination to find her face flushed and her eyes dilated. "Well?
At last, by much concentration, her mind developed an idea which appeared feasible. She saw a thing she might do without compromising herself. But first she must be certain where the blame lay. Constance Annesley-Seton's explanation over the telephone left her little doubt of the truth.
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