"What dagger?"

"The furrin dagger with the gold handle and the big ruby set in it,
that my lady used as a paper knife. I'll take my oath I saw it lying
on the table there, shining in the moonlight, when I took away baby.
Where is it now?"

The dagger the nurse spoke of, was a curious Eastern knife, that had
belonged to Sir Victor's mother. It had a long, keen steel blade, a
slim handle of wrought gold set with a large ruby. Sir Victor's wife
had taken a fancy to the pretty Syrian toy, and converted it into a
paper knife.

"I saw it on that there table when I took away baby," Jane said
compressing her lips; "_it_ would do it. Where is it now?"

"Gone," Ellen answered. "Oh, Jane do you think--"

"She has been stabbed, you see, right through the heart, and there
isn't much blood. That devilish little glittering knife has done the
deed. There it was ready for its work, as if Satan himself had left it
handy. Oh, poor lady--poor lady! to think that the toy she used to
play with, should one day take her life!"

While they whispered in the death room, up in her chamber, while the
hours of the dreary night wore on, Inez Catheron sat, crouched in a
heap, as Hooper had found her, her face hidden in her hands. Two hours
had passed, an awful silence filled the whole house, while she sat
there and never stirred. As eleven struck from the turret clock, the
thunder of horses' hoofs on the avenue below, came to her dulled ears.