No one volunteered an answer, until Harold suggested that if she had a pocket it was probably there, when half a dozen hands or more at once felt for the pocket, which was found at last, and proved to be one of great capacity, and to contain a heterogeneous mass of contents:  A purse, in which were two or three small German coins, an English sovereign, and a five dollar green-back; two handkerchiefs, one soiled and coarse, bearing in German text the initials ‘N.B.’ the other small and fine, bearing the initial ‘J.,’ also in German text:  a pair of scissors, a thimble, a small needle-case, a child’s toy, a worn picture-book, printed in Leipsic, a box of pills, some peanuts, some cloves, a piece of candy, a seed cake, a pocket comb, half a biscuit; and at the very bottom, the brass check whose number corresponded with that upon the trunk; also a ring to which were attached three keys, one belonging to the trunk, another evidently to the carpet-bag, while the third, which was very small and straight, must have been used for fastening some box or dressing-case.

It was Mr. St. Claire who opened the trunk, from which one of the servants had removed the rope, while Frank sat near still trembling in every limb, and watching anxiously as article after article was taken out and examined, but afforded no satisfaction whatever, or gave any sign by which the stranger might be traced.

There was a black alpaca dress and a few coarse garments which must have belonged to the woman.  Some of them bore the initials ‘N.B.,’ some were without a mark, and all were cheap and plain, like the clothes of a servant before her head is turned and she apes her mistress’ wardrobe.  The child’s dresses were of a better quality, and one embroidered petticoat bore the name ‘Jerrine,’ while the letter ‘J.’ was upon them all, except a towel of the finest linen, on one corner of which was the letter ‘M.’ worked with colored floss.

‘Jerrine!’ Mr. St. Claire repeated, pronouncing it ‘Jerreen.’  ’That is a French name, and a pretty one.  It is the child’s, of course.’

To this no one replied, and he continued his examination of the trunk until it was quite empty.

‘That is all,’ he said in a tone of disappointment; and Frank, who had been sitting by and holding some of the things in his lap as they were taken from the trunk, answered, faintly: 

‘No, here is a book.  It was done up in a handkerchief,’ and he held up what proved to be a German Bible; but he did not tell that he had found something else, which he had thrust into his pocket when no one was looking at him.