"If I could throw her in there I should be safe!" she muttered.
She hardly knew how she accomplished it, but she dragged Flower's body down to the cellar and pushed it inside the door. It fell with a loud splash into the water, and Jewel banged the door to wildly, and rushed from the scene of her awful crime.
She did not know whether it was minutes or hours that she lay shuddering upon the sofa before Marie entered and looked around with a disappointed expression.
"I beg your pardon; I did not like to disturb you and the la—woman, mademoiselle, but it is quite time that you decided on what flowers you will wear this evening."
Jewel lifted her blanched face from the sofa, and said, carelessly:
"The flowers? use your own taste, Marie. It is always perfect. As for disturbing me—why, the woman went long ago, poor beggar. She had seen better days, she said, but she was a widow now with two children freezing in a garret. I gave her five dollars to buy food and coal, then I rang the bell for you to show her out. But you did not answer, so, as she was in a hurry to get back to her little ones, I showed her out myself."
Marie murmured some glib phrases of admiration for her young lady's condescension, then begged pardon for being in the conservatory and out of sound of the bell.
"I just ran down to see about the flowers for your corsage, but everything was so sweet and fragrant I couldn't tear myself away," she explained, with many nods and shrugs of head and shoulders.
"You are very excusable," Jewel replied, drawing a long breath of relief at hearing that Marie had been in the conservatory, out of reach of what had happened awhile ago.
She had feared at first that she would have to take the clever maid into her confidence and secure her aid in removing the body, but now she was very glad she had not done so.