"Open that drawer, mademoiselle," I said. "It contains only some private things." "Open that drawer or I burst it open." "No," she cried, as I jerked the handle. "I will open it." [Illustration] She fetched the key out of another drawer which was unlocked, and fitted it into the lock of the dressing-table. And all the while I saw that she was watching me. She meant to play me some trick, I was certain. So I watched, too, and I did well to watch. She turned the key, opened the drawer, and then snatched out something with extraordinary rapidity and ran as hard as she could to the door--not the door through which we had entered, but a second door which gave on to the passage. She ran very fast and she ran very lightly, and she did not stumble over a chair as I did in pursuit of her. But she had to unlatch the door and pull it open. I caught her up and closed my arms about her. It was a little carved ebony box which she held, the very thing for which I searched. "I thought so," I cried, with a laugh. "Drop the box, mademoiselle. Drop it on the floor!" The noise of our struggle had been heard in the next room. The Baroness rushed through the doorway. "What has happened?" she cried. "Mon Dieu! you are killing her!" "Drop that box, mademoiselle!" And as I spoke she threw it away. She threw it through the doorway; she tried to throw it over the banisters of the stairs, but my arms were about hers, and it fell in the passage just beyond the door. I darted from her and picked it up. When I returned with it she was taking a gold chain from her neck. At the end of the chain hung a little gold key. This she held out to me. "Open it here," she said in a low, eager voice. The sudden change only increased my suspicions, or rather my conviction, that I had now the proof which I needed. "Why, if you are so eager to show me the contents, did you try to throw it away?" I asked. "I tried to throw it down into the hall," she answered. "My corporal would have picked it up." "Oh, what would that matter?" she exclaimed impatiently. "You would have opened it in the hall. That was what I wanted. Open it here! At all events open it here!" The very urgency of her pleading made me determined to refuse the plea. "No, you have some other ruse, mademoiselle," said I. "Perhaps you wish to gain time for your friend in the next room. No, we will return there and open it comfortably by the fire." I kept a tight hold upon the box. I shook it. To my delight I felt that there were papers within it. I carried it back to the fireside and sat down on a chair. Mademoiselle Sophie followed me close, and as I fixed the little gold key into the lock she laid her hand very gently upon my arm. "I beg you not to unlock that box," she said; "if you do you will bring upon me a great humiliation and upon yourself much remorse. There is nothing there which concerns you. There are just my little secrets. A girl may have secrets, monsieur, which are sacred to her."