"And the bracelet, Thomas?" she asked eagerly.--He shook his head sadly.
A shadow came over the face and tears into the eyes of his poor sister.
"The Lord"s will be done," she said patiently; "but tell me, dear Thomas, all about it."--He then related what he had heard from Kate Foster.
"And you feel sure, Thomas, that the Fosters know nothing about the bag or bracelet?"
"Quite sure, Jane. I"m certain that neither Foster nor his wife would or could deceive me about this matter. But take heart, my poor sister.
See, the Lord"s opening the way for you "one step at a time." _We_ should like it to be a little faster, but _he_ says No. And see, too, how this blessed book of yours has been made of use to Foster and his wife. Oh, there"s been a mighty work done there! But mark, Jane, "twouldn"t have been so if this Bible had come straight to you. There"s wonderful good, you see, coming out of this trial already. So wait patiently on the Lord, the bag and the bracelet will turn up too afore so long; they are on the road, only we don"t see them yet; you may be sure of that."
Jane smiled at him through her tears, and pressed her recovered Bible to her lips. Then she opened it, and, as she turned over leaf after leaf, her eye fell on many a well-known underlined text, and the cloud had given place to sunshine on her gentle features as her brother left the house and returned to William Foster"s.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
WHO OWNS THE RING?
"You are satisfied that we know nothing about the bag or the bracelet, I hope?" asked Foster anxiously on Bradly"s return.
"Perfectly," was the reply; "I haven"t a doubt about it; but there"s something behind as none of us has got at yet, but it"ll come in the Lord"s own time. Wherever the bag and bracelet are, they"ll turn up some day, I"m certain of that; and it"ll be just at the right moment.
And so we must be patient and look about us.--But what was it, Kate, you said was dropped along with the Bible?"
"It was this ring," replied Mrs Foster, at the same time placing a small gold ring with a ruby in the centre on the table. The three examined it by turns. There were no letters or marks engraved anywhere on it.
"And this was dropped by the same hand which dropped the Bible?" asked Bradly.
"Yes; it rolled along the floor, and may have fallen either off the finger of the person who put her hand in at the window, or from between the leaves of the Bible."
"And have you mentioned about this ring to any one?"
"No, not even to my husband. I"m sure William will forgive me. It was just this way: I put it into my pocket at the time, and afterwards into a secret drawer in my desk, fearing it might bring one or both of us into trouble. When this happy change came, and both William and I began to care about the Bible, I told him how I came by the book, but thought I would wait before I said anything about the ring; perhaps something would come to clear up the mystery, and it would be time enough to produce the ring when some one came forward to claim it; but no one has done so yet."
"And you have no suspicion at all who it belongs to, or who dropped it?"
"No, none whatever."
"Well," continued Bradly, "I don"t think it fell out of the leaves of the Bible, as not a word is said about it in John Hollands" letter. I"m of opinion as it slipped off accidentally from the hand of the woman as she was dropping the Bible; and since it"s clear she didn"t want it to be known who she was, if she knows where she lost her ring she won"t want to come and claim it."
"And do you think," asked Foster, "that she is some one living in Crossbourne or the neighbourhood?"
"Pretty certain," replied Thomas. "There"s been some roguery or trickery about it altogether. The bag was in Crossbourne on the 23rd of last December, and your wife got the Bible that same evening. I"m firmly persuaded there"s been some hoax about it all, and I believe bag and bracelet and all"s in the town, if we only knew how to find "em without making the matter public. If we could only get at the owner of the ring without making a noise, we might find a clue as would lead us to where the bag is."
"I"m much of your mind," said Foster. "I fancy that some one of poor Jim Barnes"s drunken mates has been playing a trick off on him by watching him into the Railway Inn, and running off with the bag just to vex him; and then, when he found what was in the bag, he would hide all away except the Bible, for fear of getting into a sc.r.a.pe. But can anything be done about the ring?"
"I"ll tell you what we"ll do if you"ll let me have it for a while," said Bradly, with a twinkle in his eye. "I"ll get our Betsy to wear it in the mill to-morrow. You"ll see there"ll something come out of it, as sure as my name"s Thomas Bradly."
Accordingly, next morning Betsy Bradly appeared at the mill with the ring on her little finger--a circ.u.mstance which soon drew attention, which was expressed first in looks and then in whispers, much to the quiet amus.e.m.e.nt and satisfaction of the wearer. No questions, however, were asked till the dinner hour, and then a small knot of the hands, princ.i.p.ally of the females, gathered round her. These were some of her personal friends and acquaintances; for her character stood too high in the place for any of the less respectable sort to venture to intrude themselves upon her.
"Well, Betsy," cried one, "you"ve got a pretty keepsake there; let"s have a look at it."
The other"s only reply was to take off the ring and offer it for inspection. As it was pa.s.sed from hand to hand, various exclamations were uttered: "Eh, it"s a bonny stone!"--"I never seed the like in all my born days!"--"It"s fit for the Queen"s crown!"--"Where did you get it, Betsy?"--"Her young man gave it her, of course!"--"Nay, you"re wrong there," said another; "he"s got more sense than to spend his bra.s.s on such things as that,--he"s saving it up for a new clock and a dresser!"--"Come, Betsy, where did you get it?"
"You"ll never guess, so it"s no use axing," said Betsy, laughing. "It ain"t mine; but it"ll be mine till its proper owner comes and claims it."
"Oh, you picked it up as you was coming to the mill!"
"Ah yes!" cried another; "like enough it"s been dropped by the vicar"s lady, or by some one as has been staying at the vicarage!"
"You"re wrong there," replied Betsy; "I didn"t find it, and n.o.body"s lost it exactly."
"Well, I never!" cried several, and then there was a general move towards their different homes.
Betsy continued wearing the ring for the next day or two, and always dexterously parried any attempt to find out how she came by it. Odd stories began to fly about on the subject, and work-people from other mills came to have a look at the ring, Betsy being always ready to gratify any respectable person with a sight of it. But still she persisted in refusing to tell how it had come into her possession. At last, one afternoon, just as the mills were loosing, one of the railway clerks came up to her, and said,--
"Are you looking out for an owner to that ring you"re wearing? I"ve been told something of the sort."
"I ain"t been exactly looking out," was the reply; "but I shall be quite ready to give it up when I"m sure it"s the right owner as wants it."
"Well, I"ve a shrewd guess I know whose it is," said the young man.
"Indeed! And who may that be?"
"Oh, never mind just now; but, please, let me look at the ring."
She took it from her finger and handed it to him. He examined it carefully, and then nodding his head, with a smile on his lips, said, "I"ll be bound I"ve had this ring in my hands before."
"It"s yours, then?"
"Nay, it"s not mine. But do you particularly want to know whose it is?"
"Yes, I do; or, rather, my father does, for the simple truth is, it"s father as has got me to wear it; and if you can find out the proper owner, he"ll be obliged to you."
"Just so. If you don"t mind, then, lending me the ring, I"ll soon find out if I"m right; and I"ll bring it back to your father to-morrow night, and tell him all about it."
To this Betsy immediately a.s.sented, and the clerk went away with the ring in his charge. The following evening he and Thomas Bradly were closeted together in the "Surgery."
"So," said Thomas, "you can tell me, I understand, who is the owner of this ring you"ve just returned to me."
"I think I can," replied the other; "indeed, I feel pretty sure that I can, though, strangely enough, the owner won"t own to it."
"How"s that?"
"I can"t say, I"m sure, but so it is."
"Well, be so good as to tell me what you know about it."
"I will. You know the Green Dragon,--perhaps I ought to say, you know where it is. I wish I knew as little of the inside of it as you do; it would be better for me, though I"m no drunkard, as you are aware. But, however, I go now and then into the tap-room of the Green Dragon to get a gla.s.s of ale, as it"s near my lodgings. Mrs Philips, she"s the landlady, you know. Well, she"s a bit of a fine lady, and so is her daughter. Her mother had her sent to a boarding-school, and she has got rather high notions in consequence. But she and I are very good friends, and she often tells me about her school-days. Among other things, she has been very fond of talking about the way in which the other young ladies and herself used to be bosom friends; and one afternoon, when I was with her and her mother alone in the parlour, she took a ring off her finger, and asked me to look at it, and if I didn"t admire it. And she said that one of her schoolfellows, whose parents were very wealthy, had given it to her as a birthday present a short time before she left school. The ring was the very image of the one your daughter Betsy lent me."--So saying, he took it up from the table, on which Thomas Bradly had placed it, and held it up to the light.--"I could almost swear to the ring," he continued, "for I"ve had Miss Philips"s ring in my hands many a time. She"s very proud of her rings, and likes to talk about them; and I had noticed that she used to wear this ring with the ruby in it over one or two others, and that it slipped off and on very easily. And I used often to ask her to show it me, partly to please her, and partly for a bit of fun. Well, now, it"s curious enough, I"ve missed that ring off her finger for several weeks past. I couldn"t help noticing that it was gone, for she always took care that I should see it when she had it on. I asked her some time back what had become of it; but she looked confused, and made some sort of excuse which seemed odd to me at the time. But when I asked her again, which was very soon after, she said she had put it by in her jewel-case, for it was rather loose, and she was afraid of its getting lost. But somehow or other I didn"t quite believe what she said, so I asked her once more, and she snapped me up so sharply that I found it was best to ask no more questions about it. However, when I heard about your daughter wearing a ring with a red stone in it, and that it was looking out for an owner, it occurred to me at once that it might be Lydia Philips"s ring--that she had dropped it by accident, and didn"t like to own that she had lost it for some reason best known to herself, and that she"d be only too glad to get it back again. So when your daughter lent it me yesterday, I took it up in the evening; and getting her by herself in the parlour, I pulled it out, and said, "See, Miss Lyddy, what will you give me for finding _this_ for you?" I expected thanks at the least; but to my great surprise she turned first very pale, and then very red; and then, taking up the ring between her finger and thumb as cautiously as if she was afraid it would bite or burn her, she said--but I didn"t believe her--"It ain"t mine, and I don"t want to have anything to do with it." I tried to make her change her opinion, and told her I knew her ring as well as she knew it herself, that she must have lost it, and that I was certain this was the very ring she had showed me so often; but she only got angry, and flung the ring at me, and told me to mind my own business. So I picked up the ring off the floor, and slunk off like a dog with his tail between his legs, and I"ve brought you back the ring. But it"s the most mysterious thing to me. I can"t make it out a bit. I"m as sure now as I can be sure of anything that it"s the same ring I"ve often handled, and that it belongs to her.
Her own ring is gone from her finger, and that and this are as like as two peas; but, for some reason or other, she won"t have it to be hers, so I must just leave matters as I found them."