"Ugh! they give me a ghostly feeling! My flesh creeps! I feel almost as
if Mona Forester herself were standing beside me, and had laid her dead
hand upon me. I cannot look them over--I will tie them up again and burn
them all at once," she muttered, in a hoarse tone.

She gathered them up, and hastily wound the ribbon about them, laying
them upon the table beside her, then proceeded with her examination of
the other contents of the secret compartment.




CHAPTER V.

MONA DECLINES A PROPOSAL.


Mrs. Montague next took a square pasteboard box from the secret
compartment in the table, and opened it.

On a bed of pure white cotton there lay some exquisite jewelry. A pearl
and diamond cross, a pair of unusually large whole pearls for the ears,
and two narrow but costly bands for the wrists, set with the same
precious gems.

"Pearls!" sneered the woman, giving the box, with its contents, an angry
shake. "He used to call her his 'pearl,' and so, forsooth, he had to
represent his estimate of her in some tangible form. There is nothing
of the pearl-like nature about me," she continued, with a short, bitter