HIDDEN JEWELS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

HIDDEN JEWELS.

(By BESSIE SPOONER.)

Lady Reynolds was known throughout the large village of Camsden, for her great kindness of heart to those who. when in distress, sought her aid. Some of the many that came to her were grateful for the money she bestowed upon them, while there were others who merely fawned upon her generosity. There was no one person in the whole of Camsden who did not know the Poplar Grange and its beautiful gardens. A long drive, bordered on either side by tall poplar trees, gave the rambling, midVictorian house its name, and it was down this shady avenue that Lady Reynolds came, one sunny afternoon. Although the birds were singing in the branches above her, this lady's head was bowed in troubled thought. Only that morning a polite but officious letter had been sent by the manager of her bank, stating that there was an overdraft in her banking account. Lady Reynolds realised then that she had overestimated her financial standing, and it grieved her to think that the home she loved so greatly must undoubtedly be sold, if she wished to retain her independent position. It was dur'ng the late afternoon when the first stab of reality pierced her already tortured mind. She had just returned from her walk when the maid cam-} and announced that a visitor had requested to have an interview with her ladyship. Her ladyship nodded her head in consent. The maid then added that the visitor was waiting in the reception hall, and, after bobbing two or three times, left the room. The hall was wide and beautiful, many famous paintings adorned panelled walls, while here and there the bust of some immortal man stood on its polished pedestal. A slight sound made the visitor look up from the little dog she was holding, to see Lady Reynolds coming down the Persian-covered staircase. When Lady Reynolds saw the small visitor, she held out her hand and smiled. The girl was about fifteen, with pretty wavy hair, and a small refined face tUat had the look of one who has been forced to live a life of penury. As the girl told Lady Reynolds the cause of her being there, the lines -of harassed helplessness appeared on that good woman's face. Just as the girl finished her story the little dog she held jumped from her arms and scampered about the hall, with Fay endeavouring to catch it. She bailed the dog in a corner and was stooping forward to seize it when she knocked against a pedestal. It fell to the floor with a smash, and the bust was broken into the smallest of fragments. Lady Reynolds rushed forward with an inarticulate cry, and knelt beside the pedestal. She put her hands among the pieces, and when she lifted them they overflowed, with dazzling

crystal jewel?. . . Xeedless to eay, Lady Reynolds became a fabulously rich woman, and still distributes her deeds of kindness among thoi?e in distress. while Fay and her mother live in a lodge at the end of the poplar drive, where the big iron gates are always opened wide.