"I shall tell my story when it suits me," snarled Lady Branwin, turning on her savagely. "I am no longer the timid fool that I was. I am hard, I tell you; hard and determined in every way. Now don't say a word," she went on, imperiously throwing up her hand; "let me talk. When I finish, you can make your comments. Not that it matters to me what any of you say."
"Mother," said Audrey, imploringly, and strove to take Lady Branwin's hand.
"You are a good child, Audrey," said the elder woman, preventing the action, "but when you know all you may not be so ready to be kind to me."
"I don't care what you have done," cried Mrs. Shawe, impetuously, "you are my mother; nothing can alter the relationship between us."
"Oh, I think so," began Perry Toat. "You left the upper portion of the window open when you were conversing with Madame Coralie," she added, addressing herself to Lady Branwin, who sat looking as still and hard as any statue, "and you conversed rather loudly, so--"
"Ah!" interrupted Ralph, with a start, "is this what you kept back at Weed-on-the Sands, Miss Toat?"
"Yes," she assented calmly. "I made Miss Pearl confess that she was not asleep. When Eddy Vail entered the court and disappeared into the house--"
"I did not disappear into the house," said the scamp, rudely. "I hid in the shadow, and watched the window to see the diamonds."
"Ah! Miss Pearl lost sight of you, as you were in the shadow, no doubt," was Miss Toat's reply; "but perhaps you heard what your wife and Lady Branwin were talking about?"
"I didn't gather much," said Eddy, quickly. "I saw that there were diamonds, and then ran upstairs to the still-room to alter the clock, and get ready to steal them. Badoura, as she frequently did, left the inner door open. After I left on that night she locked it again and restored the key to--"
Miss Perry Toat waved her hand impatiently.
"We know all about that," she said sharply. "But you"--she again addressed herself to Lady Branwin--"talked so loudly that Miss Pearl overheard your secret, and I forced her, by threatening to bring her in as an accomplice after the fact, to tell it to me."
"There is no need for you to call it a secret," said Lady Branwin, quite unmoved. "You have already told Audrey that something can alter the relationship between us. I prefer to explain the matter myself since Audrey is married, and I shall see no more of her."