When the Marquess next offered them to her, she would refuse again to accept them until Percy had found some other way out of his difficulty.

She knew that the diamonds were almost sacred in the eyes of the Marquess, not only because they were family heirlooms, but because his wife had worn them; and she shuddered at the idea of their falling into Percy's hands, the deceit and treachery which he contemplated.
She dismissed her maid when she heard Percy enter his dressing-room; she listened to his movements with a sense of uneasiness; he had already become indifferent to her, and a feeling of actual dislike of him was growing up within her.

Presently the door between the two rooms opened and he looked in.
"Hallo! not in bed ?" His voice was thick, as it always was at that hour of the night; but he spoke with affected lightness and smiled.

"You and the old man been having a palaver, haven't you?
Did he say anything about--the diamonds ?" he added, casually.
"Yes," she said, without turning her head from the glass.

"He offered them to me; but I refused them, as you told me to do." He had been fumbling at his collar, but as she spoke, his hand fell to his side and he looked straight before him, with a curious expression on his face.
"That's right," he said, after awhile.