had rarely seen the light. Shawls and ribosos of damask, laces,
gowns of satin, of velvet. As the Senora flung one after another on the
chairs, it was a glittering pile of shining, costly stuffs. Ramona's
eyes rested on them dreamily.

"Did my adopted mother wear all these?" she asked, lifting in her hand a
fold of lace, and holding it up to the light, in evident admiration.

Again the Senora misconceived her. The girl seemed not insensible to the
value and beauty of this costly raiment. Perhaps she would be lured by
it.

"All these are yours, Ramona, you understand, on your wedding day, if
you marry worthily, with my permission," said the Senora, in a voice
a shade less cold than had hitherto come from her lips. "Did you
understand what I read you?"

The girl did not answer. She had taken up in her hand a ragged, crimson
silk handkerchief, which, tied in many knots, lay in one corner of the
jewel-box.

"There are pearls in that," said the Senora; "that came with the things
your father sent to my sister when he died."

Ramona's eyes gleamed. She began untying the knots. The handkerchief was
old, the knots tied tight, and undisturbed for years. As she reached the
last knot, and felt the hard stones, she paused. "This was my father's,
then." she said.

"Yes," said the Senora, scornfully. She thought she had detected a new
baseness in the girl. She was going to set up a claim to all which had
been her father's property. "They were your father's, and all these
rubies, and these yellow diamonds;" and she pushed the tray towards her.

Ramona had untied the last knot. Holding the handkerchief carefully
above the tray, she shook the pearls out. A strange, spicy fragrance
came from the silk. The pearls fell in among the rubies, rolling right
and left, making the rubies look still redder by contrast with their
snowy whiteness.

"I will keep this handkerchief," she said, thrusting it as she spoke,
by a swift resolute movement into her bosom. "I am very glad to have one
thing that belonged to my father. The jewels, Senora, you can give to
the Church, if Father Salvierderra thinks that is right. I shall marry
Alessandro;" and still keeping one hand in her bosom where she had
thrust the handkerchief, she walked away and seated herself again in her
chair.

Father Salvierderra! The name smote the Senora like a spear-thrust,
There could be no stronger evidence of the abnormal excitement under
which she had been laboring for