Robinette found that a black look or two was all that she had to fear from Mrs. de Tracy at present, and even these became less severe under the alchemy of Lavendar's tact. A reminder that an exhibition of the jewelry had been promised was graciously received. Bates and Benson were summoned, and armed with innumerable keys, they descended to subterranean regions where safes were unlocked and jewel-boxes solemnly brought into the drawing room. Mrs. de Tracy wore an air almost devotional, as she unlocked the final receptacles with keys never allowed to leave her own hands.
"If the proceedings had begun with prayer and ended with a hymn, it wouldn't have surprised me in the least!" Robinette said to herself, looking silently on. Her silence, luckily for her, was taken for the speechlessness of awe, and did a good deal to make up, in the eyes of her august relative, for her late indiscretions. As a matter of fact, her irreverent thoughts were mostly to the effect that all but the historical pieces of the Stoke Revel _corbeille_ would be the better of re-setting by Tiffany or Cartier.
Mrs. de Tracy opened an old shagreen case and the firelight flickered on the diamonds of a small tiara.
"This is a part of the famous Montmorency set," she announced proudly, with the tone of a Keeper of Regalia. Then she took out a rope of pearls ending in tassels. "These belonged to Marie Antoinette," she said.
An emerald set was next produced, and the emeralds, it was explained, had once adorned a crown. Deep green they were, encrusted in their diamond setting; costly, unique; but they left Robinette cold, though like most American women, she loved precious stones as an adornment. One of those emeralds, she was thinking, was worth fifty times more than old Lizzie Prettyman's cottage: the sale of one of them would have averted that other sale which was to cause so much distress to a poor harmless old woman.
"When do you wear your jewels, Aunt de Tracy?" she asked gravely.
"I have not worn them since the Admiral's death," was the virtuous reply, "and I have never called or considered them mine, Robinetta. They are the de Tracy jewels. When Carnaby takes his place as the head of the house, they will be his. He will see that his wife wears them on the proper occasions."