"To Captain Rupert Valentine. He is in the Guards. Would you like to
see his photograph?"
I murmured something. Lady Ursula stretched out her hand to a table
which stood near, took up a morocco case, which she opened, and showed
me the dark, slightly supercilious face of a handsome man of about
thirty.
"Don't you admire his expression?" she said. "Isn't it firm? Doesn't
he look like the sort of hero a girl would be proud to obey?"
"That depends on the girl," I answered.
"Good gracious, there isn't a girl in the kingdom who would not be proud
to be engaged to Rupert Valentine."
"I hope you will be very happy, Lady Ursula."
"There is not the least doubt on that point. We are to be married
immediately after Christmas. Now comes the real point of my confidence.
Rupert gave me an engagement ring exactly like yours, so like, that
only the closest observer could detect a difference. The ring belonged
to his mother, and he valued it above all other earthly things."
"Yes," I said; I was really interested at last.
"Yesterday I lost the ring. I don't know how. I was out driving, and I
may have pulled it off with my glove when I was shopping. I went to
Madame Leroy's among other places. When I came back my ruby ring was
gone. I cannot conceive how it vanished. I went very nearly mad on the
spot, I really did. I dared not face Rupert, and tell him his
engagement ring was lost. All search was made for its recovery, but in
vain. Nurse took the carriage round, and went from shop to shop to try
and get some trace of it. In the end she visited Madame Leroy. I was
to meet Rupert at a friend's house last night. While nurse was at
Madame Leroy's your ring was brought in. Imagine her astonishment and
rapture! Here was a mode of deliverance for me in case my own ring was
never recovered. I wore your ruby ring last night, Miss Lindley, and
Captain Valentine noticed it, and said that beautiful as he had always
known his mother's rubies to be, he had never seen them flash as they
did on my finger last night. How relieved I felt, and how certain that
you would let me buy the ring from you. You will, now that I have
confided my trouble to you, won't you?"
"I am sorry," I said, "but I must repeat the words I have used already
so often. I cannot part with the ruby ring. It was left to me by an
old cousin of mine, and when I received it I was particularly requested
never to part with it. I am sorry for you, Lady Ursula, but I must ask
you to give me my ring, and let me go."
Lady Ursula put her hands behind her.
"You are a cruel, selfish girl," she said angrily.
"No, Lady Ursula, I am not cruel. The world, which has been so gentle
to you, has blown many hard rough winds on my face, but they have never
made me cruel. And as to being selfish, why should I part with my one
ewe-lamb?"
"Oh, dear!" said Lady Ursula.
She rose from her seat, and began to pace up and down the room. I
noticed that she was a tall, largely-made girl, and could be as vigorous
and energetic as any one when she chose. She clenched her dainty hands
now and spoke with passion. "I repeat that you are cruel and selfish,"
she said. "I know that you can plead your cause well; for I suppose you
are clever, and have doubtless been educated at one of those detestable
High Schools. But let me tell you that however you argue the point you
are actuated by cruel motives. What _can_ that ring matter to you? and
if I don't get it, most likely my engagement will be broken off. Thus,
you see, you will have ruined my life."
"Lady Ursula," I said, "it is _you_ now who are cruel. I have my own
reasons for wishing to retain my own trinket, and surely the only right
and honourable thing for you to do is to tell Captain Valentine of your
loss. If he is the least worthy of your affection, he will, of course,
overlook what was only an unfortunate accident."
"No, he never will--he never, never will. You don't know what he
thought of that ring. I'd rather never see him again than tell him that
his mother's ruby ring was lost."
"Well, I am truly sorry for you. But I don't see my way to helping
you."
"Listen. Hire me the ring for a week--only for a week, and I will give
you thirty pounds."
I must admit that this proposal staggered me. I thought of Jack, and
the stolen twenty pounds. I thought of Monday morning, when the
discovery of the theft would be made known. I thought of the agony, the
dishonour; I saw my mother's face as it would look when the news was
brought to her that her son was a thief. Yes, thirty pounds could do
much good just then; it would save Jack, and it would give me funds to
attend to Hetty's wants.
Lady Ursula saw the hesitation in my face.
"Give me one week's grace," she said. "My own ruby ring may be found
before the week is up."
She opened a little exquisitely inlaid secretary, and began to pull out
of a secret drawer notes and gold. She made a pile of them on the
table--four five-pound notes, ten sovereigns. The yellow of the
sovereigns seemed to mix with the rose-coloured tone of the room. I
gazed at them as if they fascinated me. I half held out my hand to
close over them, and then drew it back again.
"You will take the money--you want it, I know you do," said Lady Ursula.
"But even if I do you will be no better off at the end of a week. In
fact, you will be worse off, for you will have been all that time
deliberately deceiving the man you intend to marry."
"Oh, don't begin to lecture me! Let the end of the week take care of
itself! Here are thirty pounds! Give me the ring for a week!"
"I shall do very wrong."
"Do wrong then! Take your money! You are looking greedily at it! Take
it, you long for it!"
"I do long for it," I answered. "If I take it, Lady Ursula, it will
avert such a storm as girls like you can never even picture. It will
save--Oh, have you a mother, Lady Ursula?"
"Of course I have. I don't see her very often. She is at Cannes now."
"If I take the money," I said, "it will be only for a week, remember."
"Very well. Of course you will take it. Out with your purse. Nay,
though, you shall have a new purse, and one of mine. What do you say to
this, made of red Russian leather? Here go the notes, and here the
gold. Pop the purse into your pocket. Now, don't you feel nice? We
have both got what we want, and we can both be happy for a week."
"I will come back in a week," I said. I felt so mean when that thirty
pounds lay in my pocket that I could scarcely raise my eyes. For the
first time the difference of rank between Lady Ursula and myself
oppressed me. For the first time I was conscious of my shabby dress, my
rough boots, my worn gloves. "Good-bye, Lady Ursula," I said.
"Good-bye, good-bye! I cannot tell you how grateful I am! You are not
cruel, you are not selfish. By the way, what is your name?"
"Lindley."
"Your Christian name?"
"I am called Rosamund."
"How pretty! Good-bye, Rosamund!"