I looked at
the blackened candelabrum, and wondered whether that candle had gone
out before she had, or whether her head had fallen upon her arm, and
she had died wide-eyed in the black, black dark. The cold grue shook
me again, and I beat my hands together for terror and pity.
"Do not think of that!" said Mr. Jelnik. "Death rectifies human
wrongs, and all of them have long, long since been healed of their
hurts. Come, let us find the jewels. We are losing time."
We opened the cabinets first. They held papers that had been
precious in their day--old deeds, old charters and grants, with the
king's seals and the signatures of the Lords Proprietors upon them;
correspondence, a casual glance at which showed Revolutionary
activities--a hanging matter once, but harmless enough now; a box of
foreign coins, all gold; a charge, in medieval Latin, on fine
parchment, which exquisitely illuminated initial letters; a plain
silver chalice and a patten; some threadbare robes and regalia, and
a gavel; a most carefully done chart of the Hynds family, ending,
however, with Colonel James Hampden Hynds himself; two letters, and
a miniature of Charles the First; letters signed, "Yours, B.
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