Miss Pinkett flushed. "What right have you to touch anything of mine--this diamond especially?"
Meg remained silent, as if pondering what she would say.
"If I find you fingering anything that belongs to me I will report you, Miss Beecham," resumed Miss Pinkett in her most chilly tones.
"You ought to lock up your diamond," said Meg, at last, with an effort.
"It it not right to leave it about--not right to others. It might bring some one into temptation."
"I understand," replied Miss Pinkett with cutting point. "I see there is necessity to lock it up." She shut the box with a snap, and closed the drawer with an elaborate jingle of keys.
The diamond was hidden, but Elsie still thought of it. One evening, as Meg sat on the window sill absorbed in reading an account of the condor, and following with tremendous interest the flight of the bird over mountain and seas, Elsie suddenly interrupted her.
She pointed to the evening star hanging in the suffused light of the sunset. "I wonder if papa sees that star in India," she said.
"Not just now, at any rate," answered Meg a little roughly. Any sign of yearning in Elsie"s voice affected her painfully.
"Do you think Miss Pinkett"s lovely jewel is like that star?" said Elsie, after a pause.
"No, it is not more like it than a lighted lucifer match is like a sun,"
replied Meg.
"She is gone out to a dinner-party to-night, and she did not wear it. I wonder why," continued the child, undismayed by the blunt reply.
"I do not care for that diamond more than if it were a pebble from the gravel of the playground," answered Meg impatiently; then with abrupt transition she asked, "Did you ever hear of the condor?"
"The what?" asked Elsie.
"The condor," repeated Meg, and she pointed to the picture of the bird.
But Elsie"s mind was not to be so easily diverted.
"If I had that diamond," she said in a subdued tone, "I would carry it about wherever I went. I would talk to it, and kiss it."
"I think," said Meg, "that if you had it you would want nothing but that hard, glittering stone."
"Nothing! At night I would put it under my pillow and it would come into a dream," continued Elsie.
"You dream of it already," said Meg impatiently.
"I wish you would tell me a story about it," replied Elsie with a sigh.
Meg shut her book. She drew her breath heavily
"I don"t like that diamond," she said. Then pausing, she began abruptly:
"Once upon a time there was a little girl like you, who wanted a diamond, and she cared for nothing because she could not get that diamond; and a spirit put her into a small bare world all alone, to own it and be its queen. And the spirit gave her a beautiful diamond, twenty times as big and as beautiful as that one of Miss Pinkett"s."
"Oh!" said Elsie, with a pant.
"The little girl," went on Meg, "jumped about for joy, and said she would want nothing now that she had this diamond.
"And the spirit said to her, "There is something better and more beautiful than this diamond. When you have got tired of that jewel you will find this out, and then you will want that greater blessing.""
"Blessing!" repeated Elsie petulantly. "I am sure she never did want anything more."
"And so the little girl," continued Meg, "talked to her diamond, and kissed it, and put it under her pillow at night and dreamed of it. But the diamond did not answer her, did not kiss her back; if she were sad or if she were glad it glittered the same. So the little girl at last grew tired of the diamond. It was not a companion. She felt a great want. There is something better, she thought; something that would be good and pleasant to have in sorrow as well as in joy. She asked the spirit to tell her what was that better thing. But the spirit did not answer. So the little girl went wandering about her bare world to find it. She walked till she was footsore, and still she could not find it; for she did not know what it was. Only she yearned for it. One night she was so weary and lonely that she felt as if she must die, and she prayed to the spirit to have pity upon her and give her that better thing; and at last it came to her."
"What was it?" said Elsie eagerly.
"She was dropping off to sleep, sobbing to herself in her weariness and solitariness, when on her forehead there was laid a soft kiss."
"A kiss!" repeated Elsie in a tone of disappointment.
"It was a kiss of love, like this," said Meg, bending forward and gently kissing Elsie"s forehead. "And when she felt this kiss the fatigue, the loneliness and sadness left her, and the next morning she awoke quite happy."
"Was it the spirit gave her the kiss?" asked Elsie, with cold interest.
"She sometimes thought it was," said Meg.
"And the diamond--what became of the diamond?" asked Elsie.
"It had vanished," said Meg.
"I do not like that story," said Elsie pettishly; but she remained thoughtful by Meg"s side.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE PARTY.
Meg thought that a change had come over Elsie. The child was attentive at her lessons, and softly dependent upon the protection of her friend.
Elsie"s mind had also become full of a school-party that was shortly to be given. There were to be theatricals. Miss Pinkett, who was to leave school after this term, was to play a grand piece on the pianoforte. The evening was to close with dancing. Some of the girls" brothers were asked to the party. Elsie was to take part in the theatricals--she was to appear as a fairy, in a white dress ornamented with tinsel.
Nothing else but the coming party was talked of. The girls discussed the festivity between lessons, and it was the theme of their speculation as they walked abroad. Meg alone was uninterested, and would have wished to escape and remain in her room that night. On the appointed day there were no lessons, and the schoolroom was decorated with flowers and sketches; the pupils lending their aid and their taste to Signora Vallaria, who supervised the arrangements.
The evening was approaching. All the girls who were to take part in the theatricals had dropped in one by one dressed for their parts. There was to be a rehearsal before the guests arrived. Elsie alone was missing.
Meg sought her high and low. Once she thought she caught sight of the little figure in Miss Pinkett"s room, but when she entered she found the room empty. As she was turning away she encountered Miss Pinkett, who looked at her with surprised coldness.
"I was looking for Elsie," Meg explained.
"She is not in the habit of coming into my room uninvited," replied Miss Pinkett. "Indeed no one is but yourself, Miss Beecham," and Miss Pinkett shut the door without waiting for Meg"s reply.
The dress rehearsal had begun without Elsie, when suddenly the door flew open and Miss Pinkett entered in great agitation. Her diamond star was gone. Had any one seen it? The case was on the table where she had put it, but it was empty. Blank astonishment greeted the announcement. There was a rush to the young lady"s room to help in the hunt for the missing jewel. The servants were called and asked if any of them had seen it; but all declared they had not entered that room. At last all adjourned to the schoolroom, where the wild excitement resolved itself into a solemn inquiry as to who had been last in Miss Pinkett"s room. Whispers grew around Meg. More than one glance of suspicion was turned upon her.
At last Miss Reeves asked quietly, "What were you doing, Miss Beecham, in Miss Pinkett"s room a little while ago?"
"I?" replied Meg, amazed.