“With pleasure,” said her brother very coldly. “To-morrow is Sunday. On Monday at ten o’clock in the morning they will come from the bank for the jewels, and you will consult your own interests best by giving them up without more of this folly; we shall have them valued afresh by Hunt and Roskell, for values change with time.” “Out of my presence, and never dare to enter it again so long as you live!” she said with fury, whilst she twisted her handkerchief between her hands as though it were Jack’s little throat that she was strangling. Hurstmanceaux shrugged his shoulders, bowed to her slightly, and went out of the room. To a more suspicious man the impression that she had some worse motive for her opposition than a mere vain reluctance to part with these ornaments would have suggested itself; but he was not suspicious, and he knew that women of her type would sell their souls to be smarter than their neighbors. “Cocky only put me in his will,” he thought ruefully, “because he knew that I was up to her tricks, and should put the curb on her for the young un’s sake.” He did his duty loyally; but the doing of it was extremely disagreeable to him. He could not help being fond of her; he never could wholly forget the time when she had been a little, saucy, lovely, bewitching child, resting her golden curls on his shoulder when he went home from Eton or Oxford. CHAPTER XXIV. When he went downstairs he summoned the major-domo into the library on the ground floor, where Cocky’s sporting literature still strewed the tables. “Mason, her Grace leaves this house on the first of July,” he said to that functionary. “Very good, my lord,” said Mason, with impassable countenance. “You see, Mason,” continued Ronald, “the duchess is of course in a very altered position; if the duke had lived----” “Quite so, my lord,” said Mason, who thought: “Bless us and save us! If he had, everything would have gone in the smelting-pot.” “Her establishment will be much diminished; I am afraid she will be obliged to relinquish your services and those of others.” “Oh, my lord,” said Mason with a respectful little gesture which implied that persons like himself were always in demand at all seasons, and that the loss would be her Grace’s, not his. “Well, you will see that everything is packed up that belongs to the family, and you will see that the house is put in due order to be given up to its owners on the last day of the month; for your wages and those of the others you will go to the late duke’s lawyers.” Mr. Mason’s face clouded haughtily at the word wages, but he was a good-hearted man--he did not openly resent. “I beg pardon, my lord,” he said with hesitation, “but does her Grace know she leaves the house?” “Yes,” said Ronald. “That is, she knows she must leave it.” “And do you think she will, my lord?” “She must!” Mason shook his head. “The duchess never does what is not agreeable to her, my lord.”