She passionately turned away her head.
"I might hope to restore you to health and happiness. You know with what they are associated?"
She made a slight motion.
"And that they are an invaluable clue to the murderer of Mrs. Van Burnam?"
Another motion.
"How then, my child, did you come to have them?"
Her head, which was rolling to and fro on the pillow, stopped and she gasped, rather than uttered:
"I was there."
He knew this, yet it was terrible to hear it from her lips; she was so young and had such an air of purity and innocence. But more heartrending yet was the groan with which she burst forth in another moment, as if impelled by conscience to unburden herself from some overwhelming load:
"I took them; I could not help it; but I did not keep them; you know that I did not keep them. I am no thief, doctor; whatever I am, I am no thief."