Seth took from the trunk a long soft package, containing a piece of bright blue silk, sufficient for a dress.
"Did she ever show you this?" asked Seth.
"No," said Sally, with trembling fingers on the silk. "How beautiful she will look in it!"
In a corner of the trunk was a small box made of cedar wood. Opening it, Seth took out various articles of jewelry, and gazed at them with sad eyes.
"These should be the belongings of a lady, Sally. Our girl is being prepared for the change. Is it to be one of joy or sorrow?"
At the bottom of the cedar-wood box was a small packet of letters addressed to the Duchess. Seth hesitated. The receipt of these letters had been hidden from him. They were addressed to the Duchess at a post-office a mile distant from Rosemary Lane. He debated within himself whether he had a right to read them. "If I were her father," he thought, "the right would be clearly mine. As it is, the right is mine. I am her guardian and protector."
He read them in silence; they were love letters, expressing the most passionate adoration for the Duchess, and filled with vows and promises enough to distract the mind of any girl in her position. Apart from the expressions of love they contained, there were other disturbing elements--such as the circumstance of the letters being written on paper bearing a crest with Latin words around it. Sally followed Seth's movements with wistful eagerness, but he did not enlighten her as to the contents of the letters. He returned them and the trinkets to the scented box, and replaced in the trunk with studied care all the articles he had taken from it. Then he locked and carried the trunk to the corner of the cellar again.
"It may be," he said, after a short contemplative pause, "that our Duchess has really attracted the love of a gentleman. Such things have occurred, produced by faces and figures less beautiful than those of our Duchess."
"Then the change will be one of joy!" cried Sally, with a brighter look.
"You know what that means, Sally. It means separation from us. You have a good memory, my girl?"