Page:Marsh--The seen and the unseen.djvu/337

Rh The ball of conversation was opened by the lady.

"Is it possible that your Grace was offering insult to my child?"

His Grace had his hands in his trousers pockets. He seemed huffed, and jerked his elbow towards the leather case which lay upon the table.

"I don't know what you call insult. I was offering her that."

"And pray what may that be?"

"It's a present I got for her. I didn't mean it for an insult It cost me a cool five thousand, I do know that"

"Five thousand? Pounds? Your Grace!" The lady took the case into her hands. She opened it "Diamonds! And you have given them to Edith! What prodigal generosity!"

"I don't know about given 'em, because she wouldn't take 'em."

"She wouldn't take them?"

"Jiggered if she would! She treated them as though they were bits of glass, and I was a barber's clerk."

The lady reflected.

"Possibly she misconstrued the motives which actuated you in offering her so costly a gift."

"I don't see how she could, because I told her I offered it because I loved her."

"Because you—loved her! Your Grace! I presume you mean in a platonic sense."

Outside the window was Miss Paynter. When she first left the room she had passed to the end of the verandah, the precious letter, marked "Immediate," held tightly in her hand. She opened it, and read