Mrs. Fielding's eyes began to blaze with a wild, maniacal light. She held out her hands with a commanding gesture.
"The papers! Give them to me!" she cried, hoarsely.
"Wait," she said; "they are half burned anyhow. It seems as if my father intended to burn them and never let you know the deceit he had practiced on you. He had written the whole story out, from time to time, in his diary, and on the day he committed suicide he must have flung it into the fire, and old Maria pulled it out--"
"Yes, that is what she said. Give me the book, Jewel!" Mrs. Fielding cried, in wild impatience; but again the clever, wicked girl refused.
"Not yet," she said; and suddenly turned on Flower, pointing a scornful finger at her wan, white face. "Get up; you look like a fool kneeling down there!" she exclaimed, roughly. "Sit down there in that chair; mamma is going to tell you who and what you are."
Flower dragged her trembling form up from the floor, and obeyed, looking toward Mrs. Fielding with wistful, frightened eyes.
"Now, mamma!" Jewel cried, eagerly; but the wretched woman uttered a low moan of distress and sunk like a log to the floor.
Instinctively Flower rose to go to her assistance, but Jewel pushed her back roughly into her chair.
"Do not you dare touch her!" she exclaimed, with such a lightning-like glance that Flower fell abashed into the chair.
Jewel knelt by her mother a minute; then rose, and said:
"It is nothing but a faint; she will come to herself presently. In the meantime, I will tell you the story of my mother's ruined life, for which _your_ mother is to blame."
"My mother?" Flower echoed, bewilderedly.
"Yes," Jewel answered; and pointing at Mrs. Fielding, she said: "That woman is no relation of yours; but you are my half-sister--made so by the sin of our father."
A low, startled cry shrilled from Flower's white lips; but Jewel did not heed it--only went on, like a young fury:
"He was a villain, that Charley Fielding! Your mother, who was beautiful, but poor and of obscure birth, he betrayed; and my mother, who was rich, and his social equal, he married for money, still keeping up his intrigue with the girl Daisy Forrest. So that you and I were born within twenty-four hours of each other."