A dark blue merino dress, made in the fashion of fifteen years before; a black silk cape, the worse for wear, trimmed with beaded gimp; a black bonnet, with dark blue ribbon strings, and a bunch of pink roses under the coal-scuttle front;—these, with an armful of nondescript underwear, were all the box contained, saving a big stone wrapped in paper that lay at the bottom, and made it seem heavy.
Just at first indignation kept Nell’s grief in check. There had been good clothing in the box, she knew, and her mother’s little stock of jewelry, with a few odd remnants from her childhood’s home, of little worth to any one else, but of priceless value to her.
Feeling dazed and bewildered by the shock, Nell sat on the floor, with the heap of clothing in her lap, staring stupidly into the empty box. Then a fragment of paper with writing on it caught her attention, and, leaning forward, she picked it up.
The piece had been torn from a letter, and only a part of the sentence remained.
“Unless the money is paid within a week, I will give information, which will lead to your speedy arrest, and you will——”
Nell stood straight up, letting the lapful of garments drop unheeded on the floor.
She had seen that handwriting before, but where?
It was a habit of hers to stand up when any problem hard to solve forced itself upon her attention.
As she stood erect, staring straight before her, she saw the letter which a little while before she had found in the lining of her grandfather’s old coat, and at once she remembered that the writing on the envelope was identical with that on the slip she held in her hand.
With a bound she reached the table, and, seizing the envelope, dragged out the enclosure it contained.