'Marian is going to read the papers in Maude's room, and I have come for you,' Frank said.
'I don't care to hear them,' Tom replied. 'I am satisfied that we are beggars, and Jerrie the heiress.'
But Frank insisted, and Tom went with him to his sister's room, followed by their friends, for whom the dinner was waiting and spoiling in the kitchen, where as yet no hint of what was transpiring had reached, save the fact that Maude had been down stairs and fainted. She was propped upon pillows scarcely whiter than her face save where two crimson spots burned brightly, and her eyes were fixed constantly upon Jerrie, who sat beside her, holding her cold, clammy hands, which she occasionally patted, and kissed and caressed.
'Where did you find the bag?' the judge asked; and then Jerrie narrated the particulars of her interview with Peterkin, whose destruction of the table had resulted in her finding the bag with the diamonds in it. 'They were mother's,' she said, the last words almost a sob, as she turned her eyes upon Mrs. Tracy, who stood like a block of stone, with no sympathy or credulity upon her face. 'Father bought them for her at the same time with Mrs. Tracy's, which they are exactly like. It is so written in her letter. And she sent them for me. They are mine and I gave them to Harold to keep untill I could think what to do. The diamonds are mine.'
She was still looking at Mrs. Tracy, on whom all eyes were now resting as the precious stones flashed, and glittered, and shone in the sunlight in the hall in all the colors of the rainbow.
For an instant the proud woman hesitated, then, quickly unclasping the ear-rings and the pin, she laid them in Jerrie's lap.
'You are welcome to your property, if it is yours, I am sure,' she said, and was about to leave the room.
But her husband kept her back.
'No, Dolly,' he said. 'You must stay, and hear, and know. It concerns us all.'
As he had closed the door and stood against it she had no alternative except to stay, but she walked to the window and stood with her back to them all, while Marian put into English and read, in a clear, distinct voice, and without the least hesitation, that message from the dead.