"Why should they send it to me?" she said, laughingly.
She tore off the outer paper as she spoke, and with the pleasant excitement which is always produced by the receipt of a parcel whose contents are unknown, she opened the little wooden box.
The duke heard an exclamation, a cry of amazement, of admiration, of delight, and looked up sharply.
"Is it scent or pearl powder?" he asked, with an amused smile.
She looked at him as if she scarcely heard him. Her eyes were shining, her lips apart.
"It is neither," she said, and without another word, with the little box fast clasped in her hand, ran toward the house.
CHAPTER XVIII.
STRANGE TALK.
She ran up the street and into the house, and up the stairs to her own room, her heart beating fast. Locking the door first, she opened the little wooden box, and took out the pendant, a glimpse of which she had caught as she stood beside the duke.