They had intended to go to the theater but Ruyler put her to bed at

once. He offered to read to her, but she turned her back on him with

cold disdain, and he went to the little invisible cupboard where she

kept her own jewels and took out the heavy gold box which had been the

wedding present of one of his California business friends who owned a

quartz mine.

"I shall put this in the safe," he said incisively, "for, while I admire

your stanchness in friendship, even for such an unworthy object as Polly

Roberts, I do not propose that my wife shall be selling or pawning her

jewels for any reason whatever. Think over the proposal I made

downstairs. If Polly is willing I'll lend Roberts the money to-morrow."

She had thrown an arm over her face and she made no reply. He went down

stairs and put the box in the safe. It occurred to him that she had

watched him open and close the safe several times but she certainly never

had written the combination down, and it had taken him a long while to

commit it to memory himself.

He had glanced over the contents of the box before he locked it in. The

jewels were all there, the string of pearls that he had given her on

their marriage day, a few wedding presents, and several rings and

trinkets he had bought for her since. The value was perhaps twenty

thousand dollars, for he had told her that she must wait several years

before he could give her the jewels of a great lady. When she was thirty,

and really needed them to make up for fading charms--it had been one of

their pleasant little jokes.

As Ruyler set the combination he sighed and wondered whether their days

of joking were over. Their life had suddenly shot out of focus and it

would require all his ingenuity and patience, aided by friendly

circumstance, to swing it into line again. He did not believe a word of

the necklace story. Somebody was blackmailing the poor child. If he could

only find out who! He made up his mind suddenly to put this problem also

in the hands of Spaulding for solution. The question of his

mother-in-law's antecedents was important enough, but that of his wife's

happiness and his own was paramount.

He decided to go to the theater himself, for he was in no condition for

sleep or the society of men at the club, nor could any book hold his

attention. He prayed that the play would be reasonably diverting.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024