The Girl Next Door

  CHAPTER X

  THE FILIGREE BRACELET

  Aunt Minerva took off her silver-rimmed spectacles, wiped themexcitedly, and put them on again.

  "And she said she didn't know who the child was or why she was there?Well--I--never!" she exclaimed, adjusting them all awry.

  Marcia had decided to tell her aunt all about it. And Janet had agreedwith her that since Miss Benedict had spoken as she did, there could beno further occasion for secrecy. So that night they gave her an entirehistory of the affair, and found her a willing listener, interested andsympathetic beyond their wildest expectations.

  "Why, Aunty, I didn't suppose you'd care much about it!" exclaimedMarcia, in surprise. "And here you are, nearly as excited over it aswe've been."

  "Why, who would not be?" said Miss Minerva. "It's precisely like amystery in a book. I wasn't interested in the old place at first,because I was too busy and it seemed as if the people living there weresuch slack housekeepers. I haven't any sympathy with _that_. But whatcould she mean by that last remark? Not know who the child is--or whyshe's there! It's absurd! I can't believe it!"

  "Well, that's what she _said_!" asserted Marcia, again. "And if any oneever heard of a bigger mystery, I'd like to know about it!"

  Miss Minerva took up her mending again. "Then I don't see why she keepsthe girl," she commented.

  "She keeps her, _I_ think, because she's getting sort of fond of her,"reasoned Janet. "You can easily see that. Cecily said she was very goodto her the night she was so ill. And then, too, it must have been a hardpull for her to go so far as to send for _us_ to come in just because itmight please Cecily."

  "We must see that the child has the quinine, and it wouldn't hurt her tohave a glass or two of currant jelly. Don't forget them when you go into-morrow," Miss Minerva reminded them. "I'd like to have her here andnurse her myself and feed her up a bit. And that's another strangething--why should that woman" (Miss Minerva invariably alluded to MissBenedict as "that woman") "allow you to go in and visit the child, yetforbid her to visit you?"

  "Don't ask us why," laughed Marcia. "We're as much in the dark as anyone else. What _I_ want to know is why did Miss Benedict allow Cecily toopen her shutters to-day when she refused her a while ago. And whydoesn't she open them over all the rest of the house?"

  "Well, what _I_ want to know," added Janet, "is why Cecily's mothershould have sent her over here to the Benedicts' at all, when nobodyknew her or claimed her. Whatever made her think of such a thing?"

  "There are several explanations that might suit such a case," musedMiss Minerva. "Mrs. Marlowe might have been a married sister, or somemore distant relative, who--"

  "Then wouldn't Miss Benedict know about it--or at least _suspect_ somesuch connection?" interrupted Marcia.

  "That's true," acknowledged her aunt. "There _must_ be some otherexplanation. _What_ a puzzle!"

  "What's more," added Janet, "I remember that Cecily told us this: whenshe first came, Miss Benedict questioned her all about herself--whereshe came from, and all that. And after Cecily had told her she neversaid a word, but just walked away, shaking her head."

  Miss Minerva's mind suddenly took a new turn. "Didn't you say the childsent you a couple of gifts--little trinkets--not long ago? I'd like tosee them."

  "We've never worn them," said Marcia. "It just seemed as if wecouldn't--she ought not to have given them away. And yet--I know justhow she felt--she wanted to do _something_! I'll get them." She broughtthe box and laid it in her aunt's lap.

  Miss Minerva examined the coral pendant first. "The dear little thing!"she murmured. "She must think a lot of you to have parted with this!"Then she laid it down and took up the bracelet. "Gracious!" sheexclaimed immediately, letting it fall and then picking it up again. "AmI going crazy, or are my eyes deceiving me?" She turned it over andover.

  "What's the matter?" cried both girls at once.

  "_Matter?_" cried Miss Minerva. "Why, just this: that bracelet isexactly like one I've had put away for years!" The girls stared at herincredulously. "I'll get it this minute and prove it!" And she hurriedout of the room.

  While she was gone they examined the bracelet more closely than they hadyet done. It consisted of two thin rims of silver, joined by silverfiligree-work, a quarter of an inch wide. Here and there, at intervalsin the filigree, and forming part of the pattern, were several strangecharacters, looking, as Marcia declared, like those on the receipt froma Chinese laundry. The workmanship was unusually delicate and beautiful.

  In five minutes Miss Minerva was back, flushed and disheveled, from ahunt through several bureau-drawers and boxes.

  "I couldn't find it at first," she panted. "In Northam I used to be ableto lay my hand on anything I wanted, at an instant's notice, but in thisapartment!" She heaved a resigned sigh and laid something beside thebracelet on the table.

  It was the exact duplicate--in every last detail! Even the complicatedcharacters were identical! The three stared at the trinkets in anexpressive silence. Not for a moment could it be doubted that these twobracelets were once a pair. They were so unusual that it was impossiblethere could be others like them. This astonishing fact was patent tothem all.

  "Aunt Minerva, where _did_ you get yours?" breathed Marcia, at last.

  "Why, that's easily explained," answered Miss Brett. "Your fatherbrought it to me about ten or twelve years ago, after one of hisvoyages. He said that a Chinese sailor in Hong-Kong had offered to sellit to him for a small sum, and seeing it was a rather unique littletrinket, he bought it and brought it home to me. I never wear suchthings, however. Jewelry never did appeal to me, and bracelets,particularly, always seemed a nuisance. So I put it away intending togive it to you some day, Marcia. And after a while I actually forgot allabout it--till to-night!"

  Janet sat up very straight. "There's just one thing I'd give my head toknow--this minute! _Where_ did Cecily get _her_ bracelet?"

  "Well, that you can easily find out--but I'm afraid you'll have to waittill to-morrow morning!" laughed Marcia.

  "There's something very strange about this," marveled Miss Minerva,turning the two trinkets over and over. "Actually, I can hardly tellnow which is mine and which hers, except that mine is a little moretarnished from having been laid away. Your father said, when he gave memine, that he'd never seen anything like it in any of those foreignjewelry-shops and that was why he'd been specially attracted to it."

  "Aunty," said Marcia, suddenly, "where do you suppose that sailor gotit?"

  "Your father said," replied Miss Minerva, "that he'd probably stolen it,or somebody else had. It may have passed through dozens of hands afterit was taken from the original owner. You never can tell about suchthings in the East, and it's useless to inquire."

  Again they all stared hard at the two silver trinkets, lying side byside on the table.

  "And these two bracelets once belonged to the same person," murmuredMarcia, at last; "perhaps to some one connected with Cecily. And tothink they should have drifted halfway around the world to findthemselves side by side again in busy, practical New York!"