If you don't show it to me at once, Gander--this was the cook's unusual name--"I shall send for the police."
"O mum, think of the scandal. I won't----" then Gander caught the steady eyes fixed on her. The drink and the excitement were dying out under the chilling influence of Mrs. Fane's calmness, and the cook collapsed.
"It's this, mum," and from under the cloak she brought forth a dagger with a slim steel blade and a hilt of gold richly encrusted with jewels. These flashed red and blue and green and yellow in the stream of sunlight that shone through the window. Minnie caught a sight of the glitter and clapped her hands. "Yes, my pretty," said the cook proudly, "it's lovely, ain't it. And all my own, having been found by me in the dust-hole."
"May I look at it, Gander?" asked Mrs. Fane.
The cook, still under the influence of those cold eyes, handed it over at once, talking while she did so. But she kept her treasure-trove in sight, and despite her awe would have fought Mrs. Fane, had that lady shown any signs of annexing the property. "It's jewels rich and rare with gold, mum," said Gander poetically; "emerald and sappers and dimings and them things you read of in the book of Revelations. I shall sell it to a jeweller as I knows, and with the money I shall become a lady. I don't know as I'll marry," pursued the cook meditatively; "but I'll have a little house of my own, and sit all day in the parlour in white muslin reading novels and----"
"You really must not take so much to drink, Gander," said Mrs. Fane.
The cook bristled up. "Ho, indeed!" she snorted. "I'm accused of drink, am I, when my emotions is natural, having come in for a forting. I read it in the candle last night, and in the tea-leaves two weeks previous, and then I----"
"Cook, don't be a fool! This is by no means so costly as you think."
"It's worth a thousand, if I'm a judge of stones."
"Ah! but you see you are not," said Mrs. Fane cruelly. "This dagger belongs to me. It is only imitation gold and bits of glass."