Then Virginia summoned up her courage to speak of the matter which was like a nightmare in her thoughts.
"Uncle," she said, "I think you ought to know this.

I went to Mr.Weiss' office.

He did not know that the paper was not still in your keeping.

I went to Stella, and she told me that she had not taken it for them.

She told me that they had offered her one hundred thousand dollars for it, but she never had any idea of letting them have it." If Phineas Duge was surprised, he showed no signs of it, only he looked steadily into his niece's face for a moment or two before he replied.
"Stella," he said coldly, "has taken her goods to a poor market.