called or considered them mine, Robinetta.
They are the de Tracy jewels. When Carnaby takes his place as the head
of the house, they will be his. He will see that his wife wears them
on the proper occasions."

"Carnaby's wife!" thought Robinette. "Why! she mayn't be born! He may
never have a wife! And to think of all those precious stones hiding
their brightness in these boxes like prisoners in a dungeon for years
and years, only to be let out now and then by Bates and Benson,
jingling their keys like jailers! And this house is a prison too!" she
said to herself; "a prison for souls!" and the thought of its hoarded
wealth made her indignant; all this hidden treasure in a house where
there was never enough to eat, where guests shivered in fireless
bedrooms, where servants would not stay because they were starved! And
Carnaby, too, whose youth was being embittered by unnecessary
economies: Carnaby, who had so little pocket-money that he was a
laughing-stock among his fellows--it was for Carnaby these sacrifices
were being made! Strange traditions! Fetiches of family pride almost
as grotesque to her thinking as those of any savages under the sun.

"My poor dear Middy!" she thought. "What chance has he, brought up in
an atmosphere like this?" But she happened to raise her eyes at the
moment, and to see the actual Carnaby of the moment, not the Carnaby
her gloomy imagination was evoking from the future with the "petty
hoard of maxims preaching down" his heart. He had contrived to get
hold of the Marie Antoinette pearls without his grandmother's
knowledge and to hang them around his neck; he had poised the
Montmorency tiara on his own sleek head; he had forced a heavy
bracelet by way of collar round Rupert's throat, and now with that
choking and goggling unfortunate held partner-wise in his arms, he was
waltzing on tiptoe about the farther drawing room behind the
unconscious backs of Mrs. de Tracy and Miss Smeardon.

"He's only a careless boy," thought Robinette, "a happy-go-lucky,
devil-may-care, hare-brained youngster. They can't have poisoned his
nature yet, and I'm sure he has a good heart. If he were at the head
of affairs at Stoke Revel instead of his grandmother, I wonder what
would be done in the matter of my poor old nurse?" Robinette stood in
the doorway for a moment before going up to her room. Her whole
attitude spoke depression as Carnaby stole up behind her.

"See here, Cousin Robin, I can't bear to have you