It was not an easy thing to do, without defacing the velvet, but, at length, she succeeded in lifting one side, when she found no difficulty in removing the whole thing.
Her agitation increased as her glance fell upon several papers snugly packed in the bottom of the box.
"Ah! if it should prove to be something of no account to me!" she breathed, with trembling lips.
At last she straightened herself with sudden resolution, and putting her hand into the box drew forth the uppermost paper.
It was yellow with time, and so brittle that it cracked apart in one of the creases as she opened it; but paying no heed to this, she stepped to the dressing-case, and spread it out before her, while her eager eyes swept the mystic page from top to bottom.
Then a cry that ended in a great sob burst from her hueless lips.
"It is! it is!" she gasped, in voiceless agitation. "Ah, Heaven, thou art gracious to me at last! Now, I know why she would not surrender it to him—now I know what the condition of its ransom must have been!
"How long has she had it, I wonder? and when did she first learn of its existence?" she murmured. "Ah! but it does not matter—I have it at last—I, who dared not hope for its existence, believing it must have been destroyed, until the other day; and now"—throwing back her head with an air that was very expressive—"my vindication and triumph will be complete!"
With the greatest care, she refolded the paper, after which she impulsively pressed it to her lips; then, putting it away in her pocket, she turned back to the jewel-casket, and peered curiously into it once more.
"I wonder what other intrigues she has been guilty of?" she muttered, regarding its contents with a frown.