She stared at him in amazement. "His skeleton!" she exclaimed.
"His skeleton, my dear; that's what we want. He keeps it somewhere. I've got mine, and I keep it where no eye but my own can see it. We've all got one. If we could get hold of this old gentleman's we might do something. It is in his house, depend upon it."
"If it is, I've not heard of it. Oh! yes," she cried excitedly, contradicting herself; "Bluebeard's room! He has a Bluebeard's room in the house. Mr. Hart told me of it."
Mr. Nathan chuckled. "What is in that room, Margaret?"
"How should I know? I have never been in it."
He gave her a reproachful look.
"If you hadn't told me so yourself I should not have believed it. A Bluebeard's room in the house and you've never seen it A clever woman like you! You'll tell me next, I shouldn't wonder, that you have never peeped through the keyhole."
"I do tell you so; I never have peeped through the keyhole."
It was evident from Mr. Nathan's tone that Margaret had fallen several degrees in his estimation.
"My dear," he said, "that room may contain the very thing we want--the lever."