arth was for getting out of it again as speedily as possible, and so
was I. But the housekeeper declined to let us off without first looking
at a singular piece of furniture, the only piece of furniture in the
comfortless place. She called it a tripod, I think. (There is nothing
to be alarmed at, Magdalen; I assure you there is nothing to be alarmed
at!) At any rate, it was a strange, three-legged thing, which supported
a great panful of charcoal ashes at the top. It was considered by all
good judges (the housekeeper told us) a wonderful piece of chasing in
metal; and she especially pointed out the beauty of some scroll-work
running round the inside of the pan, with Latin mottoes on it,
signifying--I forget what. I felt not the slightest interest in the
thing myself, but I looked close at the scroll-work to satisfy the
housekeeper. To confess the truth, she was rather tiresome with her
mechanically learned lecture on fine metal work; and, while she was
talking, I found myself idly stirring the soft feathery white ashes
backward and forward with my hand, pretending to listen, with my mind a
hundred miles away from her. I don't know how long or how short a time I
had been playing with the ashes, when my fingers suddenly encountered
a piece of crumpled paper hidden deep among them. When I brought it to
the surface, it proved to be a letter--a long letter full of cramped,
close writing.--You have anticipated my story, Magdalen, before I can
end it! You know as well as I do that the letter which my idle fingers
found was the Secret Trust. Hold out your hand, my dear. I have got
George's permission to show it to you, and there it is!"

She put the Trust into her sister's hand. Magdalen took it from
her mechanically. "You!" she said, looking at her sister with the
remembrance of all that she had vainly ventured, of all that she had
vainly suffered, at St. Crux--"_you_ have found it!"

"Yes," said Norah, gayly; "the Trust has proved no exception to the
general perversity of all lost things. Look for them, and they remain
invisible. Leave them alone, and they reveal themselves! You and your
lawyer, Magdalen, were both justified in supposing that your interest
in this discovery was an interest of no common kind. I spare you all our
consultations after I had produced the crumpled paper from the ashes. It
ended in George's lawyer being written to, and in George himself being
recalled from the Continent. Miss Garth and I both saw hi