"Ah but if they're real I can't keep them!" Charlotte, with
her eyes on them, moaned in her impatience. "It's too
difficult."
"Where's the difficulty, if he has such sentiments that
he'd rather sacrifice the necklace than admit it, with the
presumption it carries with it, to be genuine? You've only
to be silent."
"And keep it? How can i ever wear it?"
"You'd have to hide it, like your aunt?" Mrs. Guy was
amused. "You can easily sell it."
Her companion walked round her for a look at the
affair from behind. The clasp was certainly, doubtless
intentionally, misleading, but everything else was indeed
lovely. "Well, I must think. Why didn't SHE sell them?"
Charlotte broke out in her trouble.
Mrs. Guy had an instant answer. "Doesn't that prove
what they secretly recalled to her? You've only to be
silent!" she ardently repeated.
"I must think--I must think!"
Mrs. Guy stood with her hands attached but motionless.
"Then you want them back?"
As if with the dread of touching them Charlotte retreated
to the door. "I'll tell you to-night."
"But may I wear them?"
23
HYLAND
