Of course, she did not request Patty to do this, but learning of the custom, Patty insisted on doing it, and many an hour she spent in the old library, clad in apron and dust-cap. Her progress was rather slow, for book-loving Patty often became absorbed in the old volumes, and dropping down on the window-seat, or the old steps to the gallery, would read away, oblivious to all else till some one came to hunt for her.
At last, one day, her patient search met a reward. In an old book she found several of what were beyond all doubt Mr. Marmaduke Comarty’s papers.
Without looking at them closely, Patty took the book straight to Mrs. Cromarty.
“Dear me!” said the old lady, putting on her glasses. “Have we really found something? I declare I’m quite nervous over it. Emmeline, you read them.”
Mrs. Hartley was a bit excited, too, and as for Patty and Mabel, they nearly went frantic at their elders’ slowness in opening the old and yellow papers.
There were several letters, a few bills, and some hastily-scribbled memoranda. The letters and bills were of no special interest, but on one of the small bits of paper was another rhymed couplet that seemed to indicate a direction.
| “Where the angry griffin shows, Ruthless, tear away the rose.” |
“Oh,” exclaimed Patty, “it’s another direction how to get the fortune! Oh, Mabel, it will be all right yet! Oh, where is the angry griffin? Is it over a rosebush? You’re only to pull up the rosebush, and there you are!”
Mabel looked bewildered. So did the older ladies.