MRS. VANDERSTEIN’S JEWELS
MRS.
VANDERSTEIN’S
JEWELS
BY MRS. CHARLES BRYCE
LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY
TORONTO: BELL & COCKBURN MCMXIV
THE ANCHOR PRESS, LTD., TIPTREE, ESSEX.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVIII
MRS. VANDERSTEIN’S JEWELS
CHAPTER I
The room looked very cool in the afternoonlight. A few bowls of white roses that werearranged about it seemed to lend it an aspectof more than usual specklessness.
To Madame Querterot, a person of no taste, whomade no pretension of being fastidious, and who had,moreover, little sympathy with a passion for cleanlinesswhen this was carried to exaggeration, the airy lightnessof the place suggested the convent school of heryouthful days; and, bringing again before her thefigure of a stern sister superior who had been accustomedin those vanished times to deal out severepenalties to the youthful but constantly erring Justine,caused her invariably to enter Mrs. Vanderstein’sbedroom after a quick intake of the breath on thethreshold, as if she were about to plunge into an icybath.
Mrs. Vanderstein, ever the essence of punctuality,was ready for her on this particular evening, as shealways was.
Wrapped in some diaphanous white garment, whichshe would perhaps have called a dressing-gown, she layon a silk covered sofa and lazily wat