Caroline was only too glad to escape for a few minutes from the presence of the furious girl, and muttered to herself as she ascended the stairs, that she wished that she had bitten her tongue off before she had said a word about seeing that knife in Miriam's box.
Mrs. Mellor, feeling very uncomfortable, took her seat on a chair in the kitchen, leaning her arm on the dresser, while awaiting Caroline's return.
"I am glad," she thought to herself, "that Miriam has a few minutes in which to let her passion cool down."
But Miriam looked as if her passion were only glowing to more intense heat, as she stood with her arms a-kimbo, her eyes glaring, her cheeks flushed scarlet, and on her face an expression of defiance which nearly bordered on insolence.
"Open it—open it—turn everything out, I insist on a thorough search!" she cried fiercely, as Caroline, trembling, brought in the box. "I shouldn't care a straw if all the world were to see what's in it!"
And with her teeth rigidly set, the young maid watched the movements of her mistress, as Mrs. Mellor put the key into the lock, turned it, and then raised the lid.
"I am sure that I do not doubt your honesty, Miriam; had you not insisted yourself—" began the lady, as she lightly turned over a few of the neatly packed linens and books which the box contained.
She did not finish her sentence, for at the moment that she uttered the last word her hand touched a paper cutter of white metal which lay near the top of the box, and Caroline exclaimed—"That's the thing that I saw!"
"This is certainly not my paper knife, though something like it, I own," said the lady, annoyed at the mistake which her housemaid had made.
"Certainly it is not," muttered Miriam. "It was the parting gift of my soldier-brother before he sailed from England—and there's about as much silver in it as there is truth in her!" And she turned a withering glance on Caroline, who appeared extremely confused.