“What hast thou of mine?”
“Wilt thou look then? They are in the handkerchief.”
He watched her keenly, perhaps a little hardly, as she untied the knot. He watched the faint rose-color deepen to scarlet on her face; he saw how her hands trembled, as she 248 laid one by one the jewels on the table, and thoughtfully fingered the lace yellow with neglect. But there were no tears in her dropped eyes, and she could scarcely have been more deliberate in her examination, if she had been appraising their value. And yet, her heart was burning and beating until she found it impossible to speak.
Snorro’s anger gathered fast. His own feelings were in such a state of excitement, that they made him unjust to a type of emotion unfamiliar to him.
“Well then,” he asked, sharply, “dost thou want them or not?”
“Jan bought them for me?”
“Yes, he bought them, and thou sent them back to him. If thou had sent me one back, I had never bought thee another. But Jan Vedder was not like other men.”
“We will not talk of Jan, thee and me. What did thou bring these to-night for?”
“I told thee I was going to Wick, and it would not be safe to leave them, nor yet to take them with me. I was so foolish, also, as to think that thou would now prize them for Jan’s sake, but I see thou art the same woman 249 yet. Give them to me, I will take them to the minister.”
“Leave them here. I will keep them safely.”