"the fault was as much mine as yours; and, as Mrs. Levison says, I can
get it mended."

She disengaged the upper part of the cross from the chain as she spoke,
and clasped the latter round her throat.

"You will not go with that thin string of gold on, and nothing else!"
uttered Mrs. Vane.

"Why not?" returned Isabel. "If people say anything, I can tell them an
accident happened to the cross."

Mrs. Vane burst into a laugh of mocking ridicule. "'If people say
anything!'" she repeated, in a tone according with the laugh. "They
are not likely to 'say anything,' but they will deem Lord Mount Severn's
daughter unfortunately short of jewellery."

Isabel smiled and shook her head. "They saw my diamonds at the
drawing-room."

"If you had done such an awkward thing for me, Frank Levison," burst
forth the old lady, "my doors should have been closed against you for a
month. There, if you are to go, Emma, you had better go; dancing off to
begin an evening at ten o'clock at night! In my time we used to go at
seven; but it's the custom now to turn night into day."

"When George the Third dined at one o'clock upon boiled mutton
and turnips," put in the graceless captain, who certainly held his
grandmother in no greater reverence than did Mrs. Vane.