Inside the hollow leathern shell which pretended to be a book was a box; a green wooden box, with brass trimmings. Mary lifted the cover of this with a rapidly beating heart. And what do you think she found? First of all she found a sheet of paper, at the top of which was written “GEMS FROM SHAKESPEARE.” Below it followed a list of quotations from Shakespeare, of a character that made them all very much excited; you will readily guess why. These are the quotations:-- “The little casket bring me hither.--More jewels yet!” _T. of A._ I, ii. “The jewel that we find we stoop and take it.” _M. for M._, II, i. “Bid my woman search for a jewel.” _Cym._ II, iii. “And what says she to my little jewel?” _T. G. of V._, IV, vii. Under this sheet of quotations was spread a tiny silken blanket of pink. With trembling fingers Mary lifted this covering. “Gems from Shakespeare,” indeed! The sight made them all gasp. There, lying on velvet cushions, in little pens, were drops and clusters and strings of pearls; big and little, round and oval, creamy and lustrous and beautiful. Piece by piece Mary lifted them out of their beds. There was a long necklace which would go twice around her throat; earrings; brooches; bar-pins and bracelets and rings. Some of the pearls were set with diamonds, and some with emeralds and sapphires and rubies; some were made up into rosebuds with pink coral like that of the necklace which Mary had found in the bust of Shakespeare. It was a wonderful collection. “Well!” cried Dr. Corliss, the first one of the family to get his breath,--“well, Mary! So you have Aunt Nan’s jewels, after all. She did not sell them for the benefit of her hospital, as I believed. She wanted them to go with her beloved library. There can be no doubt that these belong to you, and that she wished you to have them, if you were clever enough to find them. And a pretty little fortune they will prove, if I am not mistaken.” [Illustration: “OH, THEY ARE VERY BEAUTIFUL,” SAID MARY] “Here is a note in the bottom of the box,” said Mary, drawing out a sheet of folded paper. Nowadays she did not dread Aunt Nan’s notes as she had done at first, for she began to think of the queer great-aunt whom she had never seen as one of her best and kindest friends. “_To Mary Corliss_” the note was addressed, and it read:--