Celia glanced at it quickly, and saw it was a sovereign. She was quite overpowered by his kindness, and for a moment her self-control forsook her.
"Oh, Uncle Jasper, I don't deserve it! Indeed I don't deserve it!" she cried, and there was the sound of tears in her voice.
"There, there, get along with you," he replied, pushing her gently out of the room, "I am the best judge of whether you deserve it or not."
"HER EARS CAUGHT THE SOUND OF SIR JASPER'S FOOTSTEPS."
She found herself standing in the hall, the library door closed against her, the butterfly brooch in her pocket, and the sovereign in her hand. Slowly she walked upstairs, and went to her own bedroom, where she took the brooch from her pocket and examined it closely, her heart filled with most conflicting emotions.
"I suppose I ought not to have taken it," she thought, "but, oh, it is very, very beautiful! Uncle Jasper will never find out it is not in the jewel case, and when I come home, no doubt I shall soon get an opportunity of putting it back. After all, it can be no great harm to take it, for it will be my own some day. Let me see, where can I keep it in safety?"
She wrapped the glittering jewel in a soft pocket-handkerchief, and thrust it right down in a corner at the bottom of the box which contained her clothes; then she put the sovereign in her purse, and went once more to join her mother and sister.
"Uncle Jasper is still writing," she informed them. "Look, mother! Look, Joy!" and she opened her purse and showed them his present.
"Half a sovereign!" Joy cried. "No, a sovereign! Did Uncle Jasper give it to you? Oh, how very kind of him!"