"I despise burglars!" ejaculated Lady Blunt, with a suddenness which
stopped Jimmy's eloquence as if a tap had been turned off. "If I found
one coming after my jewels and I had a gun handy, I'd shoot him. I
would."

"My dear Julia!" said Lady Jane. "Why suggest such dreadful things? At
any rate, this house has never been burgled, and I don't think it's
likely to be."

"Beroofen!" said Jimmy, touching the back of his chair. As he did so,
he met McEachern's eye, and smiled kindly at him. The ex-policeman was
looking at him with the gaze of a baffled but malignant basilisk.

"I take very good care no one gets a chance at my jewels," said Lady
Blunt. "I've had a steel box made for me with a special lock which
would drive the cunningest burglar on this earth mad before he'd been
at it ten minutes. It would. He'd go right away and reform."

Jimmy's lips closed tightly, and a combative look came into his eye at
this unconscious challenge. This woman was too aggressively confident.
A small lesson. He could return the jewels by post. It would give her
a much-needed jolt.

Then he pulled himself up.

"James, my boy," he said to himself, with severity, "this is
hypocrisy. You know perfectly well that is not why you want those
pearls. Don't try and bluff yourself, because it won't do."