Page:Jane Austen (Sarah Fanny Malden 1889).djvu/185

 of a cabinet so mysteriously closed in her immediate vicinity. Again, therefore, she applied herself to the key, and, after moving it in every way for some instants with the determined celerity of hope's last effort, the door suddenly yielded to her hand A double range of small drawers appeared in view, with some larger drawers above and below them, and in the centre a small door, closed also with lock and key, secured, in all probability, a cavity of importance. Catherine's heart beat quickly, but her courage did not fail her. With a cheek flushed by hope, and an eye straining with curiosity, her fingers grasped the handle of a drawer, and drew it forth. It was entirely empty. With less alarm and greater eagerness, she seized a second, a third, a fourth—each was equally empty. Not one was left unsearched, and in not one was anything found. Well read in the art of concealing a treasure, the possibility of false linings to the drawers did not escape her, and she felt round each, with anxious acuteness, in vain. The place in the middle alone remained now unexplored; and, though she had never from the first had the smallest idea of finding anything in any part of the cabinet, and was not in the least disappointed at her ill success thus far, it would be foolish not to examine it thoroughly while she was about it. It was some time, however, before she could unfasten the door, the same difficulty occurring in the management of this inner lock as of the outer; but at length it did open; and not in vain, as hitherto, was her search: her quick eyes directly fell on a roll of paper pushed back into the farther part of the cavity, apparently for concealment; and her feelings at that moment were indiscribable; her heart fluttered, her