She lifted the lid of the hat-box, at one end of the tray, and there lay the very bonnet and vail that the woman had worn in St. Louis, and also the wig of white hair.
"What a wretched creature!" she exclaimed, in a horrified tone. Then wondering if Ray might not have come, while she had been there, she flew back to the window in the other room to look for him.
Yes, his carriage was standing before the door, and he would soon find means to release her, she thought.
But moment after moment went by, and no one came, while the continuous murmur of voices in the room below made her wonder what was going on there.
Presently, however, her attention was attracted to a man who was sauntering slowly along the opposite sidewalk, and she was sure she had seen him somewhere before, although, just at first, she could not place him.
"Why!" she exclaimed, after studying his face and figure a moment, "it is Mr. Rider. Can it be possible that he suspects anything of the mystery concealed in this house? At any rate, he is just the man that is needed here at this time."
She tapped lightly on the pane to attract his attention.
He stopped, glanced up, and instantly recognized Mona, nodding and lifting his hat to indicate that he did so.
She beckoned him to cross the street, and then cautiously raised the window. He was beneath it in a moment.
"Come in, Mr. Rider, and come directly up stairs to me," she said, in a low tone. "I have been locked in this room, and I have made an important discovery which you ought to know immediately."