were indentations, to receive a
full set of jewelry, necklace, bracelets, tiara, brooch and ear-rings.

The housekeeper's face was ghastly pale, or would have been but for
the stain which gave her complexion its olive tinge, and she was
trembling with excitement.

"She surely took that paper from this box," she muttered, a note of
disappointment in her voice, as if she had expected to find what she
sought upon removing the second tray.

"I wonder if this cushion can be removed?" she continued, as she tried
to lift it from its place.

But it fitted so closely that she could not stir it.

Looking around the room for something to assist her in this effort,
she espied a pair of scissors on the dressing-case.

Seizing them, she attempted to pry up the cushion with them.

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