She gave Laura the box the next morning, before she left.
"It wouldn't be safe to carry jewels with me to the part of London I am going to," she explained. "Will you take care of them for me? They are best left behind."
She turned the key in the lock, and put the box in Laura's hands.
"There are letters there too," she said. "They are so alive, that, I suppose, father could not bear to burn them. I began to read one; but I did not finish it—I felt as if I oughtn't to."
"Ought not? Why, he left them to you especially!" said Laura. "Who has a better right?"
"I felt as if I had no right to them," said Meg.
CHAPTER V.
Even more than knowledge, pain is power.
—Illingworth.