So now that I had the chance I did just as she does,--tipped
back the lid, pulled out the stopper, and took a long, deep smell.
Whew! It almost upset me. I thought it must be fire and brimstone that
she had bottled up in there. It brought the tears to my eyes, and
took my breath for a minute so I had to sit and gasp. Then I dropped
the vinaigrette in the slop-jar and jumped down from the wash-stand.
[Illustration: I sat down on the pincushion.]
Her high, old-fashioned bureau tempted me next. There were rows and
rows of pins in a big blue pincushion, put in as evenly as if it had
been done by a machine. I pulled them out, one by one, and dropped
them down behind the bureau. It took some time to do that, but at last
the blue cushion was empty, and I sat down on it to examine the
jewel-case at my leisure. I found the prettiest things in it; an
open-faced locket, set around with pearls, with the picture of a
beautiful young girl in it; a string of bright coral beads, and a
little carnelian ring, and a gold dollar hung on a faded ribbon.
I forgot to tell you that Miss Patricia's bay window is full of
flowers, and that she has a mocking-bird hanging in a cage above the
wire stand that holds her ferns and foliage plants. The mocking-bird's
name is Dick. Now Dick hadn't paid any attention to me until I opened
the jewel-case. As I did so I knocked a hairbrush off the bureau to
the floor, which must have frightened him, for he began to cry out as
if something had caught hold of him.
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