“Yes, but go on,” said Sinclair; “next comes the bedhead.”
“That’s my discovery!” announced Patty, with what was truly forgivable triumph.
“This carved oak chimney-piece is, I have reason to believe, the headboard of some magnificent, ancient bed.”
“Patty Fairfield!” cried Sinclair, jumping up, and reaching her side with two bounds. “You’ve struck it! What a girl you are!”
“Wait a minute,” said Patty, pushing him back; “I’m entitled to a hearing. Take your seat again, sir, until I unfold the rest of the tale.”
Patty was fairly quivering with excitement. Her cheeks glowed, and her eyes shone, and her voice trembled as she went on.
Mabel, with clasped hands, just sat and looked at her. The elder ladies were plainly bewildered, and Bob was trying hard to sit still.
“I read in an old book,” Patty went on, “how somebody else used a carved headboard for a chimney-piece, and I wondered if this mightn’t be one. And it surely looks like it. And then I wondered if ‘above the stair across the hall’ mightn’t mean this platform across this hall. And I think it does. But that’s not all. My really important discovery is this.”
Patty’s voice had sunk to a thrilling whisper, and she addressed herself to Mrs. Cromarty, as she continued.
“I think the other rhyme, the one that says the fortune is concealed ‘between the fir trees and the oak,’ refers to this same place, and means between the painting of fir trees, which hangs over the mantel, and—the oak mantel itself!”