She sprang aside to avoid receiving it in her face, and in doing so nearly upset a small table that was standing before the window.

It was the table having in it the secret treasures which we have already seen.  She managed to catch it, however, and saved the heavy marble top from falling to the floor by receiving it in her lap, and sinking down with it.

But while doing this, the broken lid to the secret compartment flew off, and some of its contents were scattered over her.

Mona was so startled by what she had done, that she was almost faint from fright, but she soon assured herself that no real damage had occurred—­the most she had been guilty of was the discovery of some secret treasure which Mrs. Montague possessed.

She began to gather them up with the intention of replacing them in their hiding-place—­the beautiful point-lace fan, which we have seen before, a box containing some lovely jewels of pearls and diamonds, and a package of letters.

“Ha!” Mona exclaimed, with a quick, in-drawn breath, as she picked these up, and read the superscription on the uppermost envelope, “’Miss Mona Forester!’ Can it be that these things belonged to my mother?  And this picture!  Oh, yes, it must be the very one that Louis Hamblin told me about—­a picture of my father painted on ivory and set in a costly frame embellished with rubies!”

She bent over the portrait, gazing long and earnestly upon it, studying every feature of the handsome face, as if to impress them indelibly upon her mind.

“So this represents my father as he looked when he married my mother,” she said, with a sigh.  “He was very handsome, but, oh, what a sad, sad story it all was!”

She laid it down with an expression of keen pain on her young face and began to look over the costly jewels, handling them with a tender and reverent touch, while she saw that every one was marked with the name of “Mona” on the setting.

“These also are mine, and I shall certainly claim them.  How strange that I should have found them thus!” she said, as she laid them carefully back in the box.  Then she arose and righting the table, replaced the various things in the compartment.

In so doing she stepped upon a small box, which, until then, she had not seen.

The cover was held in place by a narrow rubber band.

She removed it, lifted the lid, and instantly a startled cry burst from her lips.

“Oh, what can it mean? what can it mean?” she exclaimed, losing all her color, and trembling with excitement.

At that moment the hall-bell rang again, and Mona turned once more to the window, now fully expecting to find that Ray had come.

No, another carriage stood before the door, but she could not see who had rung the bell.

She wondered why Ray did not come; it was more than an hour since he went away, and she began to fear that her captor was planning some fresh wrong to her, and he might be detained until it would be too late to help her.