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May 27, 2025 • 15 mins
On the eve of the high-society wedding between the lovely Juliet Phayre and the enigmatic Duke of Claremanagh, Emmy West pays a visit, eager to catch a glimpse of the legendary Tsarina pearls, jewels meant only for the eyes of the Duchess. When Juliet confesses shes never laid eyes on them, Emmys surprising admission that she has seen them once sets off a series of questions. Considering the last duchess passed away many years ago, who could have possibly worn them? Who is this mysterious Lyda Pavoya? And most importantly, who exactly is the man Juliet is about to marry?
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter nineteen of the Great Pearl's Secret. This is a
LibriVox recording. All liblivox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit libivox dot org.
Recording by Marie Fatima The Silver The Great Pearl Secret

(00:23):
by Charles Norris Williamson, chapter nineteen, Old Nick, I wish
to heaven the scent of Pat's tobacco. Weren't so dumbstrong
on that handkerchief in the packet? It's the blackest bit
of evidence against him, Manners were saying to the detective

(00:45):
in Claire Marner's study when a tap came at the door.
The two locked themselves in for their occasional seances in
this room, and Jack himself answered the knock.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
He was about to scold Togo for disturbing.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Him, a thing strictly forbidden to all except the Duchess,
when the sight of Leader's handwriting penciled on an envelope
caused him to bite back the words.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Who brought this? He asked a.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Boy, Sir replied the Japanese. He is from South Theater.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
He said.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
He went first to the Taras Khan Hotel, but they
told him you'd left word to have you called up
here for anything important, So he came round. Is he
waiting for an answer? No, sir, he was in a
hurry to get back. He said there was no answer.

(01:44):
Jack retired into the study with the letter and carefully
gently opened the envelope.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Even though he was eager to know what Leida.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Had to say, he couldn't deal roughly with anything she
had touched. This was not the only letter he had
had from her, but it made his heart beat as
if it.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Were the first.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
My dear friend, she wrote with pencil, evidently in haste.
I have something very important to tell you. I cannot
put it well in a letter, but it has to
do with the Duchess, your cousin. She may be running
into some danger. I should like to save her from that.
If I could come to the theater and see me

(02:29):
for a few minutes, I shall be free at six
precisely after rehearsing my new dance of the Swan and
the Signet with Missus van Eston's Little Girl, then I
shall have a few minutes for you. Meanwhile, however, if
you have time after getting this, try to make your

(02:49):
cousin's maid tell if she knows where her mistress has
gone yours ever, Leader p This was all to Jack Manners.
It was sweet as the perfume of an eastern garden
by moonlight, her perfume. It was all he could do
to wrench his mind from entrance thoughts of Lida, to

(03:12):
concentrate them upon Juliette, Poor juliet He understood now why
he hadn't suffered at seeing her after her marriage, or
cared a single rap. It was because he'd never been
in love with her, really, except as a dear rather
trying cousin, And because what he'd called love had worn

(03:33):
off even before that, like thinly spread guilt on gingerbread.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
He had not known what.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Love was till the night when Lada Pavoyeur's eyes said
to him with her first blinding look, you are the man.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
I am the woman.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
He believed in her utterly now, and if he had not,
he would have wished to kill.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Himself to know her.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
A good and glorious woman made the splendor of life.
While Juliette has gone to the dress rehearsal of the
Roof Garden show, he remembered that was the word she
had left with Togo to give him and send us
on opening the door for them.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
But Lyda was.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
At the rehearsal, and she hadn't seen Juliette before sending
such a message to him. She would have made certain
that the Duchess hadn't arrived. He would have Simone down
at once. But Simone, the report came, was not in
the house. She had gone out with Admiral Beatty, the

(04:44):
Duchess's bulldog. Neither Togo nor Hugi could say when she
was likely to return, but Togo made a suggestion Nixon,
the Duke's English valet, might know something of her movements.
Nixon echoed to Jack, surprised, this is a new development,

(05:05):
isn't it Nick knowing anything about Simon. I had an
idea there was no love lost there. Togo ventured on
this encouragement to smile dryly.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
At heart.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
He had as little affection for Mademoiselle as old Nick had.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
He would have liked to do.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Her a nell turn in pavement of many snubs, if
it could be managed safely. There is not much love, Captain,
he said. Perhaps that is why mister Nixon watches Mademoiselle
when she takes the dog for a walk. Is he
afraid she'll do be t harm, asked Jack, I do

(05:46):
not know, Captain. Mister Nixon has not much talk, but
perhaps he would answer some questions.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Is he in the house? Yes, Captain, I noticed he left.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Soon after Mademoiselle, soon enough to see where she went,
as he often does these days.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Now his grace is gone and.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Mister Nixon has not so much to keep him busy,
but he is back. Ask him to come here, said Manners.
He spoke gravely, and as the respectful Togo retired through
Sunder's apostled. Look is there anything in this? He asked,

(06:27):
That's what I've been wondering myself, vouchsafed the detective. You
knew old Nick was dogging Simone's footsteps, yes, but I
didn't know why. I've been trying to find out how
by having the said footsteps dogged on my own account.

(06:47):
You've had Semone's shadowed, certainly, but that doesn't necessarily imply suspicion.
I'd be a poor sort of chap at my job
if I didn't have every servant in.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
The house shadowed.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Great Scott and without a word to me or my cousin,
I can't bother you two with every detail besides she
or you might have objected, and that would have made
things awkward all around.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Hm. I see, well, where does Simon go?

Speaker 1 (07:21):
She goes quite naturally to a French cafe where she
can drink her native coffee and chat with compatriots in
her native tongue. Nothing much in that, then, it would
seem no, nothing much, or so it would seem, as
you say, all the same, you're putting two and two together.

(07:43):
That would be a mistake from my point of view.
The great thing is to see whether two and two
put themselves together. Shall I come in, sir, asked the
man known to the household as Old Nick, when he
stop on.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
The door left a jar.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
For him had not been answered, Yes, come in, said jack.
Old Nick was in reality not old. He might have
been anywhere between thirty and forty, and was the typical
British soldier turned valet. There was, however, a glint in
his eye at times when fixed on a person detested,

(08:21):
which made his nickname not inappropriate. Togo thinks you may
know when Simon is likely to return, Man has explained,
she generally does about this time. Sir, I'm expecting her
any minute, Is it her? Movements or beaties that interest you,

(08:42):
Nixon swallowed discreetly.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
May I speak out, sir.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
That's what we want you to do, well, sir, I
was with is Grace, one why or another, all through
the war, and there's nobody to me like him, never was,
nor never will be.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
So there it is.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
And when he just vanished, as you might say, without
so much as kipping the wink, to me, I was
dead sure he hadn't gone off his own accord. So
I sets my wits to work the best I could,
and I listens to talk, and I reads all that
blinking newspaper art thinks. I looks as if then these

(09:24):
sly pearls has something to say in the business. So
I asked myself, who's walked off with them? If anyone?
And is Grace doing a flit in the hope of
tracking the bloke down? If them pearls was ever in
this house, they must have gone out again.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Who could have done the trick? Well?

Speaker 1 (09:48):
I never trusted ma'mselle. The why Grace did she had
the run of the police. It was just on the
cards she might lay hands on combination for opening the safe.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well, I put that in my pipe and smokes. It
strikes me.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
She goes out a bit more regular for promenades with Beatty,
since that French Monsieur brought his packet of pearls than
she used to do. So I asked the curiosity to
follow at a respectful distance. One die and sees now
lady stepped into a French restaurant. Not long after comes

(10:33):
along Monsieur of the pearls. I was sent to meet
him at the dock, but missed him there because of
some mistake about his initials where he whites for the
customer's men. But I seed him here at the house later.
When I comes home to report to his grace, I

(10:54):
recognized him all right. The question, to my mind was
whether you choose that restaurant caused towards French or cause, Oh, Mammazelle.
Jack's eyes flashed to Sanders, who smiled. You and I
have been rivals in this game, Nixon. He remarked, what conclusion.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Did you come to about mademoiselle?

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Nixon flushed, didn't know I was on your pitch, sir,
But if he asks me, in my opinion, it comes for.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Or else she comes for him.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
A cat may look at a king, said Sanders the compachios.
Why shouldn't they meet? On the other hand, why should
they venture Nixon? I wouldn't if I was in and
see years, sir, begging your pardon.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
I know you're a.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Detective in a private Why I've told you all I'd done,
but ain't all I want to do.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
I want to find is grace.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
If you want, the cat can make any frontal attack,
so to speak, Will you take me along. I'd give
my life for the dog, and I might come in
Andy who knows?

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Who knows? Indeed, echoed Sanders.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
But you shall have the chance of finding out when
the time comes, and it may come soon, any day,
any hour, even any minute. Now, if you think mademoiselle's
drew back, I suggest that you leave us, as.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
We've sent for her here.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
If there's anything in your suspicions. We don't want her
to smell a rat. Right you are, sir, Thank you, sir,
said Nixon.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
I'll be off and leave. All clear.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
So you actually suspect Simon and the fask Well Jack
turned on Sanders when they were alone.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
I can't go as far as that yet.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
There's no evidence against them, not even circumstantial. There's no
crime in a flirt between a man and woman, both
of the media thrown together in a foreign land.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
I meant to spring this on.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
You only when or if I had cause to be
sure up to date. My indoors man at Rudin's that's
a French place in Twelfth Street where they meet, hasn't
been able to overhear a word between the two. Though
he speaks French. He's acting as a waiter there now.
He has instructions to ring me up if he gets

(13:30):
onto anything Queer and I always leave word at home
and the office where I'm going to be. This conversation
following Leader's letter had keyed up Manner's nerves. He started
as rather sharp knock sounded on the door. It was Simon.
She was very neat and chic, and led Beatty, whose

(13:52):
board looks suggested that he had been denied his proper
share of exercise. Monsieur le capitaine. She perid and bowed
discreetly to the detective. Togo says, Monsieur has asked for
me the moment I am a home, I come, but
the dog, never mind a dog send escort to the

(14:12):
word from Jack. We have some questions to ask you, mademoiselle,
Please stay where you are. His stone was rough, and
he had put on a professional hectoring air. There had
been no time to arrange a plan of action. But
man has guessed what was in Sander's mind. He meant
to try scaring Simon, and he wanted to do it

(14:34):
off his own. Bat Jack trusted him and was willing
to keep out of the business.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Though the frenchwoman's.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Black eyes appealed to him as her mistress's relative against
the rude stranger, he sat still and lit a cigarette.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
End of Chapter nineteen.
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