to which she listened absently, and then laughed.
“Oh, Carter, excuse me,” she said condescendingly. “All that excitement is so unnecessary. You see, Mr. Sheldon thinks I am Sherrill Cameron. He told me how much he had always admired my lovely hair and eyes, and said my aunt Miss Catherwood was a marvelous old lady!”
It was some minutes before Carter recovered from the shock of that and asked for details, but before they were finished he actually came to telling Arla that she was a wonderful woman, and that he loved her beyond anything on earth.
“If I had only realized how really clever you are, Arla, I would never have looked at Sherrill Cameron!” he said, and Arla drew a sharp breath and wished he had not said that. Wished that somehow she might get back her illusions about him. Sherrill Cameron had been right, of course. One could not be happy with a man who had been torn from his pedestal. And yet, wasn’t there some way to put him back there? To keep him from doing the things that made her despise him?
Several times after that Arla walked and talked with the great man, and Carter’s temper was improving daily.
It was about three hours before they were expecting to land.
Arla had scribbled a letter to her aunt Tilly in her hometown telling briefly of her hasty marriage, because she knew that Hurley would spread the news widely, and her aunt would be hurt if she did not receive some personal word. She had just returned from posting it and found Carter pulling out the suitcases from under the bed. He stacked them up in two piles, the ones that were to be left with the shipping company for the return voyage, and the ones they were to take to the hotel with them. His own suitcase was on the top of one of the piles.
Suddenly he remembered some letters he had written which he wished to post on shipboard. He rushed out, slamming the stateroom door behind him, and an avalanche of suitcases careened over to the floor. The top one burst open—perhaps it had not been securely latched—and some of the contents flowed out upon the floor.
Arla sprang forward to pick up the things before Carter’s return. She had begun to realize that that was to be her perpetual attitude, always being ready to smooth the way before her husband if she wished to live peaceably with him. That was his wedding suit lying sprawled upon the floor. It would not be a wise note to introduce just at this stage, a reminder of that awful wedding.
Arla stooped and picked it up, and as she lifted it, she felt something slip out from between the loosened folds—or was it out of a pocket, the trouser pocket perhaps?—and slither along the floor.
She looked down quickly. Was it money? No, something bright and sparkling with green lights in it! Something gorgeous and beautiful lying there on the floor before her startled eyes!
She stopped and stared. What was it? Where had she seen that rarely wrought chain before and those wonderful green stones? Emeralds! They were Sherrill Cameron’s emeralds. The necklace she had worn the night of the wedding! The necklace that everybody in the room had been talking about and admiring!
For an instant Arla stood there almost paralyzed, facing the possibilities of how that necklace got into her husband’s pocket. Over her face the whole gamut of emotions played in quick succession. Astonishment, horror, disgust, scorn, fear, and then a great determination.
Frantically she dropped the garments she held and grasped the glittering necklace, cradled it in her hand for an instant, caught the gorgeous lights in the beautiful gems. Was Carter planning to sell these rare jewels to get the fortune that was to have come from the alliance that her coming to the Catherwood house that night had foiled? Was that what he had meant, that he had found a way to get the rest of the money he needed to save his business schemes?
And was he excusing himself by saying that the jewels were a part of the wedding presents and therefore he had a right to take them? She knew that Carter was capable of such quibbling. Her heart sank. Was she also to have a thief as well as a trifler for a husband?
Outside the door she could hear footsteps coming along the passageway. He might return at any moment! A great panic came upon her.