“I decline answering,” said Brownie, firmly.
She could hardly refrain from crying out with pain to see those sacred relics of a lost love and a shattered life thus profaned by their rude handling.
“Beware, Miss Douglas; this defiance goes against you, and I fear will be your ruin if you persist in it,” said the woman, majestically; then she added, feeling that she needed to make some explanation: “You see that it is something very unusual for a poor person like you to have such rich apparel and jewelry in her possession. We invite you to go to the opera. We do not wish you to wear black, and ask you to wear some other color. You appear more elegantly clad than any member of my family, and you tell Viola that it is the simplest dress you have. Now, what are we to think? Would not any mother having daughters desire to investigate the matter? You say these things were all given to you at the same time and by the same person, and only three months ago. Can you not see how very improbable such a statement appears, when we know that you have been toiling for your daily bread nearly the whole of that time? It would have taken a small fortune,” she went on, after an impressive pause, “from anyone, to buy all these precious stones at one time, and young girls like you are not in the habit of receiving so much at once. Why, Isabel thinks herself fortunate to get one piece of diamond jewelry at a time. Besides all this, I find here a card with the names of counts and lords upon it. We do not have counts and lords in America; you have never been abroad before, consequently I know you have never had any acquaintance with persons of such high degree. Here is also a glove marked six and a half—I happen to know that you wear a six.”
This was said with a frowning look at the little white hands, which were folded in a clasp of pain, and hanging against the folds of her sable dress.
“You refuse also to give me the name of the young man in the locket. Now, I can account for all this in two ways only.”
Mrs. Coolidge, as she made this statement, bent her stern gaze upon the pale face and downcast eyes of the haughty girl before her, and thought she could see guilt in every feature. She thought she had very cleverly argued the matter, and paused a moment, well satisfied with herself, before clinching her point.
“And those are,” she continued, in a hard, unfeeling voice, “you have either stolen them from some wealthy families with whom you have served, or——”
“Madam!”
The downcast eyes were raised now, and the fire which flashed from them seemed almost to sear the heartless woman’s face.
“I dare say, mamma, she was waiting-maid in some rich family, and came by them in that way,” put in Isabel, spitefully.