Three Girls from School

Annie’s hand was also held for a minute, and Annie instantly remembered that she had sat next this lady when she was enjoying her tea on the terrace, and that Mrs Ogilvie had seen her pay for her own meal. But she could not allow this trifling circumstance to worry her on the present occasion; there were too many other rocks ahead.

“We will go into the hall in a minute or two,” said Lady Lushington; “and then, Mabel, you will go upstairs, please, and bring down the pearl necklace which I bought at Interlaken. Mrs Ogilvie is so much interested in antique gems and old settings that I was telling her about it.”

“You sometimes do pick up good things,” said the lady, “in out-of-the-way places. From what you tell me, Henrietta, you seem to have hit upon a bargain.”

“I must be just,” said Lady Lushington. “I should never even have heard of the necklace but for this dear, clever little girl, Miss Brooke. It was she who discovered it.”

Mrs Ogilvie glanced for a minute at Annie. Annie’s eyes were raised and fixed on the good lady’s face.

“How lovely it is here!” said Mrs Ogilvie after a pause. “I think the peace of nature the most soothing thing in all the world. Don’t you, Miss Brooke?”

Annie said “Yes,” uttering the word with a little gasp. She was wondering in her heart of hearts what to do next. Whatever happened, she must rush upstairs with Mabel. How could she have overlooked Mrs Ogilvie’s name in the visitors’ list? But Mrs Ogilvie’s next words explained the circumstance.

“We too are fresh arrivals,” she said. “We must have come by the very next train after you, Henrietta.”

“Oh dear!” thought Annie. “If you only would have stayed away! How one does get pursued by all sorts of contrary influences when one is just hoping that one is out of the wood! The peace of nature indeed! Much peace it gives to me.”

“It is getting a little chilly here,” said Lady Lushington. “I think, if you don’t mind, Susan, we will go indoors. – Girls, you can follow us in a few minutes.”

Annie gave a deep sigh of relief. Not a word about the necklace. Perhaps there might be a few hours’ reprieve. Perhaps it would not be mentioned again until the morning.

The two elderly ladies moved slowly together into the house, and the girls were left alone.

“Didn’t I tell you,” said Mabel, “that she would be sure to be here? Isn’t it just like our bad luck?”

“We must go through with it,” said Annie.

“Perhaps it is best in the end. Of course there will be a commotion and a great fuss, but nothing ever can be discovered.”

“I know what they will do,” said Mabel, in an agony of terror. “They will search all the jewellers’ shops at Interlaken, and of course it will be found. Oh Annie, I am fit to die!”

“You must compose yourself,” said Annie; “things are not quite as bad as that. We should indeed be in a desperate hole if I had sold the necklace to a jeweller at Interlaken; but I did nothing of the sort.”

“Then you didn’t sell it at all? You have it all the time?”

“Now, Mabel, what nonsense you talk! Didn’t I show you three ten-pound notes, and didn’t I send them to Mrs Priestley?”

“Oh, I am bewildered!” said poor Mabel.

“Why did I ever pose as a genius? I am sure I have no head at all for the complications of wickedness.”

“You are very complimentary to me, I must say,” said Annie. “But listen; I will calm your poor, palpitating little heart. I did a splendid thing; I sold the necklace to Mr Manchuri.”

“Who on earth is Mr Manchuri?” said Mabel.

“Mabel, you really are silly. He is the dear old Jewish gentleman who took Priscilla Weir home.”

“And why did you give it to him?”

“Because, my dear, I invariably use my eyes and my ears and, if possible, my tongue; and I made a discovery with regard to Mr Manchuri. He owns a big jeweller’s shop in Bond Street; therefore why should not he have the necklace? So you see it is safe out of Switzerland by this time.”

“And,” continued Mabel, “he gave thirty pounds for it?”

“Oh, he didn’t think much of it,” said Annie. “Still, he gave me that, and I was glad to close with the offer.”

“Well,” said Mabel, “it is a certain relief to know that it won’t be found in any of the shops in Interlaken.”

“It is a very great relief,” said Annie. “And now our object is, if possible, to make little of it to Lady Lushington. I think I can manage that; but come upstairs, won’t you? I am certain your aunt won’t say anything more about the stupid old thing this evening.”

“I hope not, I am sure,” said Mabel. “But don’t go in for a minute or two, Annie, for the omnibus has just arrived, and we may as well watch the fresh visitors.”

The girls came forward towards the deep porch. The large green-and-gold omnibus, with the words ‘Beau Séjour’ painted conspicuously on its sides, drew up with a clatter and fuss in front of the hotel. Waiters and servants of different sorts darted out to assist the visitors to alight. The omnibus was nearly full, and there was a quantity of luggage on the roof. Ladders were put up to get it down, and the girls watched the proceedings with intense amusement – the pearl necklace forgotten, all cares for the moment laid aside. They made a pretty pair as they stood thus side by side. Annie, in her ethereal blue dress, might have been taken for that sweetest of all flowers, the blue forget-me-not; Mabel, in her purest white, for the stately lily.

So thought for a brief instant a certain young man as he alighted from the omnibus; but the next moment his face changed. A hard expression came into his eyes. He came straight up to Annie Brooke.

“I have come for you, Annie,” he said.

Chapter Twenty Three

A Stern Decision

In the briefest of all instants everything changed for Annie Brooke; the gay people, the gay hotel, the pleasant, easy living seemed to fade from her sight. She trembled all over. Mabel looked at her in astonishment.

“Come indoors; I must speak to you. We must go away to-night if possible,” said John Saxon.

“May I introduce my friend Mabel Lushington?” said Annie, making a valiant effort to recover herself.

Saxon bowed to Mabel as though he did not see her. Annie whispered to her friend:

“He is my cousin. I am afraid, my dear, that Uncle Maurice is very ill. I will come to you in your room, Mabel, soon. Please don’t say a word to Lady Lushington.”

Mabel nodded. There was an anxious note in Annie’s voice which was unmistakable. Mabel was not specially sympathetic, and would never be so to one she knew as thoroughly as she did Annie. But even she recognised the reality of Annie’s present trouble.

“What in the world am I to do without her?” she thought as, refusing the lift, she went up the wide and spacious staircase, up and up to that fourth floor of the immense hotel where the Lushingtons’ rooms were situated.

Meanwhile Saxon drew Annie aside into a small room which led out of the great hall.

“Why did not you come when I telegraphed? I sent you money for the purpose. You must come with me now, at once. A train leaves here for England at midnight. Will you go and pack your things? Take that off” – he glanced at the pretty blue dress. “Get ready. Do you wish to see him alive?”

“John, don’t look at me like that. Where is the use? How could I tell that Uncle Maurice was so ill? I can’t stand it, John, if you look at me like that. Although you are my cousin, John, you have no right to.”

“No right to?” he said with scorn. “I know a woman when I see her, and a butterfly when I look at her. Do you think it was a pleasure to me to leave the dying old man, to run the risk of his dying in my absence, in order to bring you to him? But he shall have his last great wish gratified, and I believe God will spare him just that he may see you again. But I tell you what it is, Annie Brooke, if we return and find that saint has left the world before the one wish of his heart is gratified, I shall feel uncommonly like cursing you. Now you know what I think of you. Go upstairs at once and get ready; we leave here immediately.”

“Oh John!” moaned poor Annie.

But John Saxon was obdurate. One of the waiters came in and asked the gentleman if he wanted a room. John briefly explained his errand. He would have a meal of some sort, he said, and must leave by the midnight train. The young lady, Miss Brooke, his cousin, would accompany him.

If Mabel scorned the lift in order to get to her room, Annie was glad to avail herself of it. She was glad to sink back into a corner of the spacious lift and close her eyes for a minute and try to recover her scattered thoughts. Was the whole world crumbling to pieces around her? Were all her schemes to come to naught? The necklace – would her dealings with Mr Manchuri in the matter of the necklace ever be discovered? Would other matters in connection with that disgraceful affair come to light? Would Mabel – poor silly Mabel, left all alone with Lady Lushington and Mrs Ogilvie – confess the truth? Annie was terrified that Mabel would do so. At this moment she dreaded Mabel even more than she had dreaded Priscilla; for Mabel was essentially weak, whereas Priscilla was essentially strong. If Priscilla thought it right to go through a certain course, she would go through it, come what might; but Mabel could be moved and turned and tossed about by any wind of chance.