As she opened the door, which had stood ajar ever since Brownie went out, she encountered Wilbur, face to face.
She would rather have faced an alligator at that moment.
“What is it you don’t wish Wilbur to know, and what jewels are you talking about?” he smilingly demanded, as he barred her passage.
He had come up just in time to hear their last remarks.
“That is my secret,” she replied, trying to turn the matter off playfully, though her heart was beating like a trip-hammer.
“Are they in that box? Let me see.”
Before she hardly knew what he was about, he had taken it from her and opened it.
“Where did you get these?” he asked, in great surprise.
“They are borrowed,” Isabel replied, giving her mother a significant look.
“Borrowed! who could lend such a valuable collection as this?” he asked, beginning to feel, from their appearance, that all was not right.