CHAPTER XII.
THE CUPBOARD IN THE WALL.
But poor Cecile had greater anxieties than the fear of her journey
before her.
Mrs. D'Albert--when she gave her that Russia-leather purse--had said
to her solemnly, and with considerable fear:
"Keep it from Lydia Purcell. Let Lydia know nothing about it, for
Lydia loves money so well that no earthly consideration would make
her spare you. Lydia would take the money, and all my life-work, and
all your hope of finding Lovedy, would be at an end."
This, in substance, was Mrs. D'Albert's speech; and Cecile had not
been many hours in Lydia Purcell's company without finding out how
true those words were.
Lydia loved money beyond all other things. For money she would sell
right, nobleness, virtue. All those moral qualities which are so
precious in God's sight Lydia would part with for that possession
which Satan prizes--money.
Cecile, when she first came to Warren's Grove, had put her treasure
into so secure and out-of-the-way a hiding place that she felt quite
easy about it. Lydia would never, never think of troubling her head
about that attic sloping down to the roof, still less would she poke
her fingers into the little secret cupboard where the precious purse
lay.
Cecile's mind therefore was quite light. But one morning, about a
week after Mrs. Bell's funeral, as she and Maurice were preparing to
start out for their usual ramble, these words smote on her ears with
a strange and terrible sense of dread.
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