The reading went on for a good hour. Then the colonel rose from his sofa and went out, and young Dallas turned to Esther. During this hour Esther had been sitting still in her corner by her boxes; not doing anything; and her face, which had brightened at William's first coming in, had fallen back very nearly to its former heavy expression. Now it lighted up again, as the visitor left his seat and came over to her. He had not been so taken up with his reading but he had noticed her from time to time; observed the drooping brow and the dull eye, and the sad lines of the lips, and the still, spiritless attitude. He was touched with pity for the child, whom he had once been accustomed to see very different from this. He came and threw himself down on the floor by her side.
'Well, Queen Esther!' said he. 'What have you got there?'
'And don't succeed? Naturally. What made you think you would? Numismatology isn't what one would call a _lively_ study. What were you going to do with these old things, eh?'
'Nothing,' said Esther hopelessly. 'I used to hear papa talk about them; and I liked to hear him.'
'Why don't you get him to talk to you about them again?'
Esther hesitated; the young man saw a veil of moisture suddenly dim the grave eyes, and the lips that answered him were a little unsteady.
'It was mamma,' she breathed rather than spoke.
'And you liked to hear?' he went on purposely.
'Oh, yes. But now I can't understand anything by myself.'
'You can understand by yourself as much as most people I know. Let us see what you have got here. May I look?'
He lifted a small piece of metal out of its nest, in a shallow tray which was made by transverse slips of wood to be full of such nests, or little square compartments. The trays were beautifully arranged, one fitting close upon another till they filled the box to its utmost capacity.
'What have we here? This piece has seen service. Here is a tree, Queen Esther,--a flourishing, spreading tree,--and below it the letters, R. E. P. F., if I read aright, and then the word "Reich." What is that, now? "R. E. P. F. Reich." And here is a motto above, I am sorry to say, so far worn that my reading it is a matter of question. "Er,"--that is plain,--then a worn word, then, "das Land." Do you understand German?'