Lady Charlotte squared to him. 'Who gives her the title?'
'Do you mean to say, Rowsley, you have gone and married the woman since we came up from Steignton?'
'Anyhow, she won't have our family jewels.'
'If you had swallowed them, you'd have to disgorge.'
'I don't give up our family jewels to such people.'
'You will send the order to your bankers for them to deliver the jewels over to me at my house this day.'
'Look here, Rowsley; you're gone cracked or senile. You 're in the hands of one of those clever wenches who catch men of your age. She may catch you; she shan't lay hold of our family jewels: they stand for the honour of our name and blood.'
'They are to be at my house-door at four o'clock this afternoon.'
'Then I go down to order your bankers and give them the order.'
'My bankers won't attend to it without the order from me.'
'You will submit to the summons of my lawyers.'
'You're bent on a public scandal, are you?'
'They are not yours; you 've no claim to them; they are heirlooms in our family. Things most sacred to us are attached to them. They belong to our history. There 's the tiara worn by the first Countess of Ormont. There 's the big emerald of the necklace-pendant--you know the story of it. Two rubies not counted second to any in England. All those diamonds! I wore the cross and the two pins the day I was presented after my marriage.'
'The present Lady Ormont will wear them the day she is presented.'
'Don't expect the Lady Ormont of tradesmen and footmen to pass the Lord Chamberlain.'
'That matter will be arranged for next season. Now I 've done.'
'So have I; and you have my answer, Rowsley.' They quitted their chairs.
'You decline to call on my wife?' said the earl.
Lady Charlotte replied: 'Understand me, now. If the woman has won you round to legitimize the connection, first, I've a proper claim to see her marriage lines. I must have a certificate of her birth. I must have a testified account of her life before you met her and got the worst of it. Then, as the case may be, I 'll call on her.
'You will behave yourself when you call.'
'I should be expecting to hear of them as decorating the person of one of that man Morsfield's mistresses.'
The earl's brow thickened. 'Charlotte, I smacked your cheek when you were a girl.'