Aunt Sophie's Diamonds Read Free

falling out at Christmas, but it could not have been severe.
    "What should I do?” Miss Bliss asked the relatives. “We should be letting people know. Jonathon, maybe you'd come with me, and I'll give you some note paper."
    Jonathon's chest swelled to be at last master in some house and in a fit of nobility he said, “I don't want you to worry about a thing, Miss Bliss. You can stay right on here and look after things for me. Of course, I wouldn't be able to pay you much...” he added, as sanity returned to him.
    "No, you couldn't pay me to stay here,” she said bluntly and gave him a list of persons to notify.
    "I could pay you a little something."
    "I'm going to a chicken farm with my sister,” Miss Bliss said to be rid of him, and she returned to the Saloon. She then took the Milmonts to their rooms.
    When Marcia had attired herself in a black gown and her daughter in an unbecoming dove gray, the closest thing to mourning the girl possessed, they went downstairs to await whatever Fate and Miss Bliss had in store for them.

Chapter Two
    They were soon seated in the Crimson Saloon looking at each other in silence. Before talk was necessary, the door flew open and a regular hurly-burly girl came charging in, black curls flying beneath a jaded brown riding cap, and a rumpled brown tweed riding habit, too small for her, covering her body.
    "Oh, hello, Aunt Marcia,” she said. “Is this your daughter?"
    "My poor child!” Marcia said by way of response. She once again produced the monogrammed handkerchief. “Is Sir Hillary with you?"
    "No, they're back and coming up after dinner. Why do you call me poor child?"
    "You have not heard the sad news,” she said with a long face.
    "What, did my aunt finally die, and me not here to see her?"
    "Indeed, my sister is gone...” the last word petered out.
    The little face under the brown hat crumpled, and a tear oozed out of the dark eyes, but in an instant her face resumed its former contours, and a small hand brushed away the tear. “I'm sorry to hear it. Where is she?"
    "She—it—the body is still upstairs. We must wait for the doctor to come by, my dear. Sir Hillary is coming, you say?"
    "Yes, they are just come home, but don't know Sophie's dead."
    "They must be notified."
    "They are coming up immediately after dinner. It's not worth while sending a boy down.” The stout little voice was trying hard not to break. “Excuse me,” she said and turned away to dash up the stairs.
    "Rag-mannered,” Mrs. Milmont said to her daughter.
    "She was overcome with grief, mama,” Claudia objected.
    "That sassy chit? She hasn't a thought or a tear for anyone but herself. Snatching the diamonds out from under our noses with her conning ways. If Sophie only meant to give them to a niece and not her own sister, I don't see why she shouldn't have given them to you, but you never bothered to make up to her in the least."
    "I never saw her till ten minutes ago, and she was dying then."
    "You saw her any number of times—at least once or twice—when you were in pinafores. I daresay you don't remember."
    "I have not been in pinafores for a good many years, Mama. You forget I am twenty-four."
    "You could not have written her a letter, I suppose? Oh no, it never entered your head to be conciliating. You must needs let Miss Beresford walk off with a fortune."
    "The will has not been read yet. Mama, why did you keep asking if Sir Hillary was come yet? Do you know him?"
    "Know him? My dear, he is the Nonesuch!"
    "None such what?” her simple daughter enquired.
    "Oh, child, don't pester me with your stupid questions. He is one of the leaders of the ton, of the fashionable elite in London."
    "Is he a friend of yours?"
    "No, he thinks he is too highly placed to bother his head with me. A toplofty, arrogant..."
    "Then why are you so anxious to know if he is come?"
    "It can do no harm to be pleasant to him. Of the first stare, you must know."
    "But if you dislike him, mama, and really he sounds