'I am amazed to hear a Frenchman objecting to realism going to its
full length, and speaking for myself, I should be delighted to see the
autograph of the renowned Eugène Valmont,' and with that he proffered
me the pen, whereupon I scrawled my signature. The maid had already
signed, and disappeared. The reputed clergyman bowed us out of the
church, standing in the porch to see us walk up the avenue.
'Ed,' cried John Haddon, I'll be back within half an hour, and we'll
attend to the clock. You won't mind waiting?'
'Not in the least, dear boy. God bless you both,' and the tremor in
his voice seemed to me carrying realism one step further still.
The Lady Alicia, with downcast head, hurried us on until we were
within the gloom of the forest, and then, ignoring me, she turned
suddenly to the young man, and placed her two hands on his shoulders.
'Oh, Jack, Jack!' she cried.
He kissed her twice on the lips.
'Jack, Monsieur Valmont insists on the emeralds.'
The young man laughed. Her ladyship stood fronting him with her back
towards me. Tenderly the young man unfastened something at the throat
of that high-necked dress of hers, then there was a snap, and he drew
out an amazing, dazzling, shimmering sheen of green, that seemed to
turn the whole bleak December landscape verdant as with a touch of
spring. The girl hid her rosy face against him, and over her shoulder,
with a smile, he handed me the celebrated Blair emeralds.
'There is the treasure, Valmont,' he cried, 'on condition that you do
not molest the culprit.'
'Or the accessory after the fact,' gurgled Lady Alicia in smothered
tones, with a hand clasping together her high-necked dress at the
throat.
'We trust to your invention, Valmont, to deliver that necklace to
uncle with a detective story that will thrill him to his very heart.'
We heard the clock strike eight; then a second later smaller bells
chimed a quarter-past, and another second after they tinkled the
half-hour. 'Hallo!' cried Haddon, 'Ed has attended to the clock
himself. What a good fellow he is.'
'I looked at my watch; it was twenty-five minutes to nine.
'Was the ceremony genuine then?' I asked.
'Ah, Valmont,' said the young man, patting his wife affectionately on
the shoulder, 'nothing on earth can be more genuine than that ceremony
was.'
And the volatile Lady Alicia snuggled closer to him.