What did he mean? Jerrie wondered; while Maude's eyes sought his questioningly, and his wife said, sharply:
'You are talking like a lunatic! Do you propose to give up so easily to a girl's bare word! Let Jerrie prove it, before she is mistress here.'
Then into Maude's eyes there crept a look of terror and pain, and she whispered:
'Yes, Jerrie, prove it. There were papers in your hand, and a bag, and you said, "It is so written here." Bring the papers and read them to us—here in this room. I can bear it. I must hear them. I must know.' 'Better let her have her way,' Frank said; and Dolly could have knocked him down, he spoke so cheerfully; while Jerrie answered:
'I can't read them myself aloud. They are written in German.'
'But Marian can. I saw her there. Let them all come up; they will have to know,' Maude persisted.
After a moment, during which a powerful tonic had been given to his daughter, Frank went down to his guests, who were eagerly discussing the strange story, which not one of them doubted in the least.
In her haste to reach Maude, Jerrie had dropped the bag and the two papers, which Judge St. Claire picked up and held for a moment in his hand; then passing the papers to Marian, he said:
'It can be no secret now, and Jerrie will not care. What do the papers contain?'
Running her eyes rapidly over them, Marian said: