Suddenly as Ruth, growing tired of waiting, shifted her position, the light from the window behind struck out a patch of red. Her eyes wandered mechanically towards the colour. It was the red morocco binding of a narrow book which protruded from the heap. Hardly thinking what she was doing, the girl picked it up, and with the light from behind her strong upon it she examined it minutely. Then her heart seemed to stand still, for it was a pocket-book--perhaps the very red pocket-book which had been stolen by Jenner's murderer, and of which they had been speaking only a few minutes before.
Anxious to make quite certain as to this, Ruth slipped off the elastic strap and examined the discoloured leaves. For the most part they were blank, but written on the front page was a name, and the name was Jenner!
At the sight Ruth uttered a cry. Mrs. Marshall turned sharply.
[CHAPTER XXV.]
THE RED POCKET-BOOK.
"What is the matter, child?" asked Mrs. Marshall, sharply.
But Ruth could not answer. She sat with the red pocket-book in her lap, gazing upon it as though it were a viper. Aunt Inez repeated her question impatiently then, surprised at her niece's silence, she crossed the garret. Her eyes fell at once on the red book, and for a few seconds no word was spoken. Then at last Ruth made a remark, and made it in a hushed voice, as though she feared it might be heard by others than the frozen woman before her.
"It was not produced at the trial," was what she said, looking at her aunt.
Mrs. Marshall might have been a granite image for all the movement she made. Her face was like snow, her eyes fixed as though she were in a cataleptic state. And so she was--for the moment. Only when Ruth, who was the first to recover herself, made a motion to rise did she shew any signs of life. She sighed deeply and removed her eyes from the book.
"I will shew it to my father," said the girl; whereat her aunt changed suddenly into a creature of fire. She snatched at the pocket-book and had it in her grasp before Ruth could close her fingers upon it.