The marchioness rose, deeply shocked and grieved. “Really, I can’t stay here--” Again the sudden loudness of the sounds from the concert-room. Again the door stood open, and John Hammond in the doorway. SCENE IX AND THE PRINCE The moment she saw who had come into the conservatory the marchioness sat down again promptly, and with a decision which spoke volumes for her intention to remain. Hammond advanced, and recognized the marchioness with a look of wonder. “Where is Mauleverer?” he inquired. “I sent Gerald away,” replied the marchioness, with an intonation which plainly added: “And I should like to send you away, too.” “That was considerate of you,” retorted Hammond, with a pleasant smile. There was a vacant space on the seat between the two women, and he took possession of it with a cool deliberateness which appeared to cause the marchioness some dismay. “I wanted to have a little private chat with Miss Yorke,” she observed, stiffly. “The very thing I wanted, too. You have done me out of my turn, hasn’t she, Miss Yorke? You are positively quite a cuckoo, my dear marchioness.” The marchioness made a painful effort to smile. “I am not at all sure that I shall allow you to speak to Miss Yorke,” she responded, trying to look past him at Belle herself. On Hammond’s entrance Belle had shrunk back with a certain apprehension which had afforded secret satisfaction to her hostess. She now waited in silence, nervously plucking at the leaves of a camellia which brushed her shoulder where she sat. “Now she is under my roof,” pursued the marchioness, “I feel in the position of her guardian. I regard you as a very dangerous character.” A smile of bitter irony gleamed for a moment on Hammond’s lips. “I rather think you must be right. I don’t know why it is, but I am feeling in a peculiarly lawless mood this evening. If Miss Yorke were not here, I am not at all sure that your diamonds would be safe.” Something in the manner of this speech, rather than in the words, caused the marchioness to move several inches farther off along the settee. It was a distinct shock to her to hear the Severn diamonds made the subject of coarse jocularity. The one in the centre of her bosom had been given to the first Mauleverer by King John as a reward for resisting the agitation for Magna Charta. Those in the tiara above her forehead had been brought into the family by a left-handed daughter of John of Gaunt. The value of the whole was nearly a year’s income of the much-mortgaged Severn estates. “Really, Mr. Hammond, you speak so strangely that if I didn’t know you so well I should think something was the matter with you.” It was necessary to let her ladyship see clearly that she was out of place. Hammond cast on her a look which she had not seen in his eyes before.