"Katherine Keen! oh dear, no," returned Mrs. Toynbee, stiffly. "In one of these unused rooms there stood a curiously carved escritoire, or bureau, of polished black oak, a family heirloom, the panels of which bear the date of 1714. Miss Winter took a fancy to examine this relic, for so I may term it; she had it removed to her morning-room, and to-day, after breakfast, she set to work to examine its contents, calling me to her aid. They proved to be nothing more valuable than a number of expired leases, and other papers connected with the farm property. But while thus engaged we made a very curious discovery. By some means or other, probably from the accidental touching of a hidden spring, a secret recess at the back of the escritoire was suddenly exposed to view."
"Oh dear, how delightful! A secret recess!"
"We were, as you may imagine, on the tiptoe of curiosity in a moment. I was, and I could see that Miss Winter was: she had seemed to me to be searching for some particular document, by the way she examined all the old papers."
"But what did you find in the recess?"
"What we found, hidden away from the light for it is hard to guess how many years, was a large parcel of jewels," replied Mrs. Toynbee in slow and important tones.
"Jewels! good gracious!"
"Beautiful jewels. Rings, brooches, necklets, earrings, and lockets; nearly all set with precious stones of great apparent value. Of course their setting is sadly old-fashioned; but that can easily be altered by-and-by."
The ladies went into fresh excitement; one and all declaring how much they should like to see the jewels.
"What have you done with them, Mrs. Toynbee?"
"Miss Winter has put them back into the cabinet. At the lowest estimation, the stones alone must be worth a thousand pounds."