"Oh, Jane!"
"'Oh, Jane,' as much as you please, it's the gospel truth. Them that killed the mother hated the child. When the time comes I'll speak, if she was twice the lady she is, Ellen!"
"Lor!" Ellen cried with a nervous jump, "don't speak so jerky Mrs.
Pool. You make my blood a mask of ice. What is it?"
"Ellen," Jane Pool said solemnly, "where is the dagger?"
"What dagger?"
"The furrin dagger with the gold handle and the big ruby set in it, that my lady used as a paper knife. I'll take my oath I saw it lying on the table there, shining in the moonlight, when I took away baby. Where is it now?"
The dagger the nurse spoke of, was a curious Eastern knife, that had belonged to Sir Victor's mother. It had a long, keen steel blade, a slim handle of wrought gold set with a large ruby. Sir Victor's wife had taken a fancy to the pretty Syrian toy, and converted it into a paper knife.
"I saw it on that there table when I took away baby," Jane said compressing her lips; "it would do it. Where is it now?"
"Gone," Ellen answered. "Oh, Jane do you think—"
"She has been stabbed, you see, right through the heart, and there isn't much blood. That devilish little glittering knife has done the deed. There it was ready for its work, as if Satan himself had left it handy. Oh, poor lady—poor lady! to think that the toy she used to play with, should one day take her life!"