But I doubt if that will ever
happen now that so many years have gone by, and there has been no
endeavour to trace her. Run and fetch the case, Marian. There are some of
its contents which Gilbert ought to see before he leaves England--papers
which I intended to show him when I first told him your mother's story."
Marian left them, and came back in a few minutes carrying an
old-fashioned ebony jewel-case, inlaid with brass. She unlocked it with a
little key hanging to her watch-chain, and exhibited its contents to
Gilbert Fenton. There were some curious old rings, of no great value; a
seal-ring with a crest cut on a bloodstone--a crest of that common kind
of device which does not imply noble or ancient lineage on the part of
the bearer thereof; a necklace and earrings of amethyst; a gold bracelet
with a miniature of a young man, whose handsome face had a hard
disagreeable expression; a locket containing grey hair, and having a
date and the initials "M.G." engraved on the massive plain gold case.
These were all the trinkets. In a secret drawer there was a certificate
of marriage between Percival Nowell, bachelor, gentleman, and Lucy
Geoffry, spinster, at St. Pancras Church, London. The most interesting
contents of the jewel-case consisted of a small packet of letters written
by Percival Nowell to Lucy Geoffry before their marriage.
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