That disclosed a layer of soft packing, which, when removed, left the contents exposed to view.
"Oh!" cried Joseph and Benjamin in tones of such wonder that Fido must needs rear himself upon his hind legs to get a peep, too; but he was soon satisfied, for he saw nothing very interesting in the yellow contents of the wooden box, which neither smelt nice nor were good for food.

But the lovers looked across at each other in speechless amazement.
For the box was filled to the brim with neatly piled heaps of golden guineas--the first guineas ever struck in this country; so called from the fact that they were made of Guinea gold brought from Africa by one of the trading companies, and first coined in the year 1662.

And a quick calculation, based upon the counting of one of these upright heaps, showed that the box contained five hundred of these golden coins, which as yet were only just coming into general circulation.
"Oh," cried Gertrude in amaze, "what can she have done it for?
And they call Lady Scrope a miser!" "Misers often have strange fancies; and Lady Scrope has always been one of the strangest and most unaccountable of her sex," said Reuben.

"I cannot explain it one whit.

It is of a piece with much of her inscrutable life.