XLI
FOR AN EMERGENCY
Hilary stared, reddened as she paled, and with a slow smile shook his head. She murmured again:
"It's lost! the dagger! with all--"
"Why,--why, Miss Anna,"--his smile grew playful, but his thought ran back to the exploded powder-mill, to the old inventor, to Flora in those days, the deported schoolmistress's gold still unpaid to him, the jeweller and the exchanged gems, the Sterling bill--"Why, Miss Anna! how do you mean, lost?"
"Taken! gone! and by my fault! I--I forgot all about it."
He laughed aloud and around: "Pshaw! Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is some joke you're"--he glanced toward the show-case--
"No," insisted Anna, "it's taken! Here are the other things." She displayed the box.