'I would have run my finger through with my bodkin sooner than have
made such a fool of myself,' returned Nan. 'And to make it worse,
what should come rolling to my poor brother's feet but three or four
of our pearls? The pearls of Ribaumont! That was the way she kept
them when she had got them, letting the string break, so that they
rolled about the floor anyhow!'
She had heard all this from Harry Merrycourt, and also that my
brother had gathered up the pearls, and, with some other gentlemen,
who had picked them up while the poor lady was carried from the room,
had given them to my Lady Hartwell to be returned to Madame van
Hunker, not of course escaping the remark from some of the stricter
sort that it was a lesson against the being adorned with pearls and
costly array.
Madame van Hunker's swoon had not surprised any one, for she was
known to have been in very delicate health ever since a severe
illness which she had gone through in London. She had been too weak
to accompany her husband to Holland, and he had left her under the
care of Lady Hartwell, who was a kinswoman of her own. Harry had
only seen her again at supper time the next day, when he marveled at
the suffering such a pale little insignificant faded being could
cause Eustace, who, though silent and resolute, was, in the eyes of
one who knew him well--evidently enduring a great trial with
difficulty.
I heard the rest from my brother himself.
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