Aunt Sophie's Diamonds Read Online Free PDF

Don't tell me she doesn't waltz and speak French and do those ugly little embroideries the ladies are all crazy for."
    "Of course, she does!"
    Claudia chuckled and her mother withered her with a stare. “Sorry, mama."
    "I'll speak to you later, young lady."
    "Stand up to her,” Hillary advised in an audible aside. “It is the only way with these old tartars."
    "Well!” from Mrs. Milmont.
    "Not speaking chronologically, you understand. ‘Old’ in the sense of ‘damned’ you know—or let us say ‘cursed,’ or even ‘blasted.’ Come along!” He held a hand out to Claudia. To her mother he said before leaving, “That will give you a few moments to get your temper under control and think up a sharp answer for me."
    Claudia arose till her eyes were not so far below the level of Sir Hillary's own, and he looked at her in surprise. “You're a big little Claudia, aren't you, darling?” he said, taking her arm in his and leading her across the room.
    "You'll never guess the way this young lady has been maltreated,” he said to Gabriel. “While we have been plotting and scheming how to get the diamonds all these years, Miss Milmont has not even been aware of their existence. Really she has been treated abominably, and I for one would have written her about them had I known of her ignorance. Well, it's too late to do any good now, but you and Luane can show her the case of reproductions in the armaments room, to prepare her for the shock of the genuine article when she sees it."
    "Oh, yes, cousin. You will die laughing to see how ugly they are,” Luane replied. “Come along, Gab,” she said.
    Hillary stood a moment looking at the trio and continued to stare after them as they left the room together. There was a certain maturity about both the face and figure of Miss Milmont, when she stood side by side with young Luane, that argued her being a little older then her mama implied. His mind ran back over the history of her family, and it occurred to him that he had been hearing about ‘little Claudia’ ever since he was a sprig himself. He looked at Mrs. Milmont, frowning in concentration, then to her great dismay, he turned and followed Gabriel and the girls from the room.

Chapter Four
    Sophronia Tewksbury, when alive, had had made a very good copy of each piece of jewelry as she acquired it. This was not done for the usual purpose of wearing the copy to public parties to prevent the original from being lost or stolen. She rarely went out to parties and, when she did, she wore the originals which were heavily insured. It was her pleasure to have the copies mounted on blue velvet and displayed in a locked glass case in the armaments room, between two suits of rusty armor which stood guard over them. Visitors to Swallowcourt could then be allowed to admire her possessions without the bother of her getting them out of hiding. They were kept in a carefully bolted box in the wine cellar, behind a couple of empty hogsheads that had once contained Chambertin. Only herself, Miss Bliss, and the butler knew the secret hiding-place. Since Sophie had been bedridden, it was the unenviable task of Miss Bliss to descend to the cave and procure whichever piece Sophie required for the week. She had to go down only once a week.
    It was to this glass case, standing between the suits of armor, that Luane now led Miss Milmont to show her the reproductions. “There they are,” she said dispassionately, holding a branched candelabra high to give a view of the ersatz treasures. In the shadowed light, against the dark velvet, they looked magnificent. The diamond necklace was the star of the show—great rock-sized chunks of sparkling stone fashioned into a necklace long enough to lie on the chest. Suspended from it at the very center was a pear-shaped stone as big as a plover's egg.
    "It looks for the world like a chandelier,” Miss Milmont pronounced, and a throaty laugh escaped her. “Are there candles to go with it?"
    "You have an