Dainty looks. ''What a spanker!'' she says.
It is the brooch of brilliants I once imagined Sue breathing upon, and polishing, and gazing at with a squinting eye. Now Mrs Sucksby holds it up and studies it with her own eye narrowed. It sparkles. It sparkles, even here.
''I know the place for this,'' she says. ''Dear girl, you won''t mind?'' She opens its clasp and pins it to the bosom of her gown. Dainty lets fall her needle and thread, to watch her.
''Oh, Mrs S!'' she says. ''You looks like a regular queen.''
My heart beats hard again. ''The Queen of Diamonds,'' I say. She eyes me uncertainly—not knowing if I mean to compliment or mock. I do not know, myself.
For a time, then, we say nothing. Dainty fin