"Your mistress is a perfect lady!" Mrs.Rook said to the servant, with a burst of enthusiasm.

"I can carve for myself, thank you; and I don't care how long Miss Emily keeps me waiting." As they ascended the steps leading into the house, Alban asked Emily if he might look again at her locket.
"Shall I open it for you ?" she suggested.
"No: I only want to look at the outside of it." He examined the side on which the monogram appeared, inlaid with diamonds.

An inscription was engraved beneath.
"May I read it ?" he said.
"Certainly!" The inscription ran thus: "In loving memory of my father.

Died 30th September, 1877." "Can you arrange the locket," Alban asked, "so that the side on which the diamonds appear hangs outward ?" She understood him.

The diamonds might attract Mrs.Rook's notice; and in that case, she might ask to see the locket of her own accord.