"Now don't--now don't. What _can_ be the matter with you?" urged Sir Jekyl in a low tone. "This, sir--I'll see him no more--you must. You _shall_ take me away." "Now, now, now--_come_! Are you talking like a sane person, Jane? What the devil can have come over you about these trumpery diamonds?" "You shan't talk that way." "Come! I venture to say they are nothing like as valuable as you fancy, and whatever they are, Lennox got them a devilish good bargain, rely on it. He knows perfectly well what he's about. Everyone knows how rich he is, and the wife of a fellow like that ought to have jewels; people would talk--I give you my honour they would, if you had not; and then he is in town, with nothing to keep him there--no business, I mean--an old military man, and he wants to keep you in good-humour." "It's a lie. I know what you mean." "Upon my soul, it's fact," he laughed, looking very pale. "Surely you don't mistake an old East Indian general for a Joseph!" "Talk any way but that, you wretch! I know him. It's no use--he's the soul of honour. Oh Jekyl, Jekyl! why did not you marry me when you might, and save me from all this?" "Now, Janet, _is_ this reasonable--you know you never thought of it--you know it would not have done--would you have liked Beatrix? Besides, you have really done better--a great _deal_ better--he's not so old as he looks--I dare say not much older than I--and a devilish deal richer, and--a--what the devil you want, for the life of me, I can't see." It was about at this point in their conversation that, on a sudden, they came upon Monsieur Varbarriere, looking through his field-glass. Lady Jane moved to turn short about, but Sir Jekyl pressed his arm on hers impatiently, and kept her straight. CHAPTER XXXIII. Lady Jane and Beatrix play at Croquet. "Good morning, Monsieur Varbarriere," cried the Baronet, who divined truly that the fattish elderly gentleman with the bronzed features, and in the furred surtout, had observed them. "Ah!" cried Monsieur Varbarriere, turning toward them genially, his oddly shaped felt hat in one hand, and his field-glass still extended in the other. "What a charming morning! I have been availing myself of the clear sunlight to study this splendid prospect, partly as a picture, partly as a map." Lady Jane with her right hand plucked some wild flowers from the bank, which at that side rises steeply from the walk, while the gentlemen exchanged salutations. "I've just been pointing out some of our famous places to Lady Jane Lennox. A little higher up the walk the view is much more commanding. What do you say to a walk here after breakfast? There's a capital glass in the hall, much more powerful than that can be. Suppose we come by-and-by?" "You are very good--I am so obliged--my curiosity has been so very much piqued by all I have seen." Monsieur Varbarriere was speaking, as usual, his familiar French, and pointed with his telescope toward a peculiarly shaped remote hillock.