She glided swiftly by the young girl, holding her breath and watching her narrowly with her basilisk eyes, passed through the narrow door, drew it hastily after her, and shoved the bolt, leaving the astonished and dismayed girl a close prisoner in that dismal cell. All too late, Brownie saw how she had been fooled and entrapped, and berated herself soundly for having trusted the faithless woman for an instant. After the first surprise was over, she looked about her to measure the dimensions of her prison. It could not have been more than eight feet by six, and was lighted only by that one small window set so high in the wall that it was impossible to look out. There was no sign of any other door or mode of egress that she could discover, only the bare, damp walls of solid stone. There was not an article of furniture in the place, and Brownie groped her way to the wall, leaning against it for support, for she was excited and trembling at finding herself so cleverly entrapped and shut up from the light of day. “I suppose she thinks to frighten me into submission by shutting me up like a naughty child,” she said, with curling lips and flashing eyes. “But she will find she has ‘reckoned without her host,’ for only one stronger than I shall ever get these precious jewels away from me again. Oh, auntie,” she added, a moment after, “you little knew what a troublesome legacy you were giving me; were they not sacred to me on your account, they are not worth all this trouble and contention. But they shall not have them now.” She walked to the door and rapped upon it. “Mrs. Coolidge,” she said, in cold, stern tones, “if you think to subdue me thus, and gain your end, you are very much mistaken in my character, and I warn you that you are only heaping up wrath for yourself.” There was no answer, and Brownie finally concluded that the only thing she could do for the present was to exercise abundant patience and wait. She had not a thought of fear, however, that the wicked woman would dare to keep her there long; her whole soul—all the Douglas blood in her veins rose up in rebellion against this arbitrary act, and she resolved that the future should hold for her jailer a reckoning full of retribution. When Mrs. Coolidge had accomplished her piece of diabolical treachery, and the door was bolted upon her prisoner, she sank down upon a chair, nearly fainting. CHAPTER XXX “I WILL DARE DO ANYTHING” Not long after, the wicked woman heard Isabel’s voice in the hall. Hastily rising, she went to the door, unlocked it, though her hands trembled so that it was with difficulty that she inserted the key in the lock. “Good gracious, mamma! what is the matter? You are as white as a ghost!” she exclaimed, as she entered. “Hush! Come in quick, and lock the door again; then I will tell you.” Isabel obeyed, and then Mrs. Coolidge related all that had transpired during the last half hour.