THE EMERALD RING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3889, 25 September 1928, Page 82

THE EMERALD RING.

By

Thomas Cobb.

Since Airs Wentworth had succeeded in providing suitable husbands for hei two daughters, match-making seemed to have become an inveterate and perniciou a habit, and when she begap to sing Philippa’s praises half an hour aftei Cyril Norman’s arrival for the week-end at Redgatc, ne was at once on his guard “ Philippa Ransome,” she said, “ is the dearest girl, and I always feel sorry’ to think that she lives alone in that flat in Bloomsbury. How she contrives tc dress as she does on her tiny income is more than I can understand.”

That was on Friday afternoon, half an hour before Philippa’s arrival, when her unquestionable charm impressed upon him the fact that discretion would provithe better part of valour. Airs Wen»worth considered it thoughtless of hei husband to monopolise him for golf on Saturday’ after' luncheon, and on his return her excitement showed that some thing unusual had undoubtedly been happening. “ It is really’ most mysterious,” she exclaimed, while Philippa looked, as if she wer e going to cry, though she had not impressed him as that kind of young woman. “ You must understand, Cyril,’ Airs Wentworth continued, “ that' last. Tuesday was our silver wedding day, and David gave me the loveliest emerald ring, but as it was unfortunately too large I put it in my jewel case until I should bt going to London. Well, after you had gone this afternoon I brought it down to show Philippa, and while she was looking at it by’ the window who should arrive but Airs Dixon, the vicar’s wife.”

“ I gave you back the ring as she came into the room,” cried Philippa, looking flushed and no doubt extremely enticing, with her short fair hair, dark eyes, and straight, slender figure. “ Don’t interrupt, my dear,” said Airs Wentworth. “Do allow me to explain what happened in my own way’. I hadn’t a pocket, so what could I have done with the ring if you had given it to me? But, of course, you didn’t. Your memory has played y’ou a trick. Airs Dixon stayed half an hour, tel Ung me about the schoolmistress and the curate, and I certainly couldn’t have kept the ring in my’ hand all. that time. When she got up to go, I accompanied her to the door, and Philippa had left the room before I got back.” “ I had strolled into the garden for a cigarette,” answered Philippa. “ What with ope thing and another,” Airs Wentworth continued, '“the ring didn’t enter my head again till half a° hour ago. Then, wondering what had become of it, I looked about and discovered the empty case on this table.” “ 1 —I put it there,” Philippa insisted. “ when I took the ring to the window’ to look at it in the sunlight.” “ Well, well, it will be quite all right,’’ urged Air Wentworth. “ It’s bound to turn up before long. It’s not the first time you’ve declared that something was stolen and found it an hour or so later. You mustn’t let it worry you, Philippa.” That was all very well, but Airs Wentworth could not refrain from referring to her loss at regular intervals, and, not withstanding her husband’s easy w’ay of taking it, the ring had not been recovered by Alonday morning, when Cyril was to take the 9.30 train to Cannon street. As Philippa insisted that it was absolutely necessary that she also should reach London in good time they’ travelled together, though she found little to say till she got out at London Bridge, where she had to change foi Charing Cross. It was not until he had handed out her suitcase and umbrella that the train had re-started, that he noticed she had left a small black leather handbag on the seat. Opening his own suitcase, he put the bag inside it, and on the way <,o Coveriy Court considered the best means of returning it. He had no notion of Philippa’s address, except that Airs Wentworth had said she lived in a flat at Bloomsbury, but on the v.'hole, there seemed no great harm in opening the bag in the hope of finding a letter or something to tell him where to send her property. On reaching his chambers he took il out of the suitcase and, laying it on his ■writing table, pressed the spring, whereupon the first thing he saw, besides a powder puff, was an envelope with the seal broken. As he took it in his hand something fell out—to his consternation, a ring, set with an emerald and two smaller diamonds—Airs Wentworth’s ring!

Cyril Norman had perhaps never been more completely shocked in his life. He found it very difficult to realise that Aliss Ransome was a thief, but the evidence seemed indisputable. Airs Wentworth had been right after all. Her ring had been actually stolen, and here it was — the emerald ring—in Philippa’s bag. Now, what ought he to do? Without the- slightest desire to niake matters worse for the girl, or to tax her with the crime, he scarcely felt justified in allowing her to keep the “swag.” He could not see his way to send back her bag together with the stolen ring, and let Airs Wentworth stand the loss. Before he could arrive at a decision it was necessary to go into Court, and, having won his case, he returned to his chambers slwrtly after 4 o’clock. Having by this time made up his mind how to act, he summoned Collins, his clerk, instructing hiAn to put the ring in a small box of some kind, to address it to Airs Wentworth, the Afanor House, Redgate, "”' 1 jf n t Tinner Tooting, where he livo.L in a. rxiarLatarx'd orvalnna. jit tlu»

same time, the handbag was to be tied up in brown paper and sent by parcels post to the address on tlie envelope from which the ring had falien out. Cyril flattered himself that he had followed the most judicious course. Airs Wentworth would rejoice at the restoration of her silver-wedding present, and rhilippa Ransome would guess what had happened. In the circumstances she would be thankful to let the matter rest, taking care to avoid the man who had found her out, for the term of her natural life. On Tuesday morning Collins reported that both the ring and the bag had been dispatched the previous evening, and Cyril went into court, where he had to take a note of a case for Air Willesden, K..C. On returning at 1.30 Collins received him with the information that Aliss Ransome was waiting, she having arrived 20 minutes earlier, and refused to go away without seeing'him. Still wearing his wig and gown, Cyril entered his room, marvelling at her effrontery’ after being caught, as it were, red-handed. She rose as he closed the door, without smiling or offering her hand, standing with her pretty head in the air, with a scornful expression on her lips. “ I suppose it was you who sent back my’ bag ? ” she began. “ You left it in the train ” “And you considered you were justified in opening it!” “It secured the only’ chance of discovering where you lived,” said Cyril, with an uncomfortable feeling that" she was in some curious way putting him in the wrong. He admired her far more warmly than h e had done at Redgate, where, no doubt, Airs Wentworth had allowed her machinations to become too evident. Whatever might be Philippa’s shortcomings, at least she had plenty of pluck. She was not afraid to face the music.

“ And,” she continued, in a tone which suggested outraged virtue on her part, and the committal of the unpardonable sin on his, “ you actually had the audacity’ to keep back the ring.” “ Airs Wentworth’s ring,” said Cyril quietly. After all, if you tread on a worm it will turn, and at that moment, without quite knowing why, he was beginning to feel unpleasantly like one. “ How abominable to say that,” she retorted. After a short pause, she added, “What have you done with it? ” “It was posted to its owner last night.” “To Airs Wentworth, do you mean?” she demanded. “Naturally,” s aid Cyril, and then she raised her hands, covering her face, and seeing she was sobbing, he felt more ill at ease than ever. “ A ou positively dared,” she exclaimed, uncovering her face a moment later, “ to assume, without a scrap of evidence, that I was a thief.” It was at this point that he realised he was beginning to waver, though it is possible that doubts were subconsciously assailing him from the moment he entered her presence. Until then he had been convinced of her guilt, but now’ he could hope that he had made a; lamentable mistake. He had never, perhaps, hoped so fervently before, and his tone became abjectly apologetic. “It seemed scarcely probable,” he urged, “ that both you and Airs Wentworth possessed an emerald ring.” “ Why’ not ? ” she retorted. “ They’ are common enough, and mine is not in the least like hers. To begin with, it is not nearly so valuable. Airs Wentworth’s had four large stones exactlv alike.” I can’t say why you didn’t mention yours,” said Cyril. “Why in the world should I?” cried Philippa. “ Did you think it necessary’ to say’ what you had in your suitcase ” “ §>till,” he persisted, “as you were talking about emerald rings, surely it would hav been only’ natural to" say you had one ” “Not at all! Anyhow, I didn’t. You are cross-examining me, and trying to trip me up.” “ Only to excuse myself,” he protested; and now she seemed to be regarding him less in anger than in sorrow’.

“ I can take you to the shop where it was bought on Wednesday mornin<”,” she said. “ Crane and Shaw’s, in New’ Bond street. I will take you there now’.” As she spoke his last remnant of suspicion fell away. _ Apart from the conviction brought by her manner, she would scarcely propose to take him to the jewellers’ if the ring had not been bought there. “ Nothing could be more unnecessary,” he insisted. “ Your word is enough. I don’t know what to say ” “ What,” she demanded vehemently, “is the use of saying anything? You can’t give me back my ring. And it is of the utmost importance that I should have it to-day.” “ I will take the next train to Redgate,” he cried. “ Indeed, you will do nothing of the kind! ” “ But you say you want it to-day.” “ I do,” she returned with a sigh. “ Then the only way is to make a clean breast to Airs Wentworth.” Then a fresh idea occurred to him. “ Alay I ask," he diffidently added, “whether"by any chance it*was an engagement ring?” “ Yes, it was,” she retorted defiantly. “ Y’ou are impatient to bring the—the affair to a*- end,” he suggested, with a personal interest which w’ould have been inconceivable the previous day. Philipna nodded in silence.

“Was it of long standing?” he asked. She seemed to hesitate, and he was half afraid of being told to mind his own business. “ Only a few—a few hours,” she answered recklessly. “ I behaved like a perfect idiot. I met him at Airs Wentworth’s, and she warned me against him, ■but I let him take me out when I saw’ him again in London. We were dancing very late on Tuesday night, and—oh, -well! I promised to marry him.” “ And repented afterwards,” suggested Cyril. “ But when he called at my flat on Wednesday morning,” she explained, “ I was horribly weak. I hadn’t enough courage to say I had changed my’ mind so soon. I allowed him to buy "a ring, but when I was on the way to Redgate on Friday afternoon I remembered what Airs Wentworth had told me about him. and wondered what she would think. I made up my mind not to tell her of the engagement. I took off the ring in the train and put it in the letter I had received the same morning.” “ When,” asked Cyril, “ was it that you made up your mind never to put it on again ? ” Philippa shrugged her shoulders, looking more embarrassed than she had done at any moment since her arrival. “ I— l thought things over on Sunday,” she murmured. “He had gone away till to-morrow morning, and I determined that he should find a letter waiting for him. But how can I write it, breaking off the engagement without returning the ring at the same time? You see what an awkward position you have placed me in! ” “ Wouldn’t it be possible,” he suggested, “ to find another ring sufficiently’ like yours to pass muster?” “ Aline,” she expostulated, “ cost 2Q guineas.” “ Suppose we take a taxi to Bond street and see what can be done,” he said, and though she refused at first, when he dwelt upon his eagerness to make amends for his blunder she began to waver, and when he had taken off his wig and gown and put on his hat they set forth together. Philippa rather disdainfully refused to let him give her luncheon by the way, but he stopped at his bank in the Strand lest Crane and Shaw should decline to take his cheque. The man behind the counter seemed to recognise Philippa, however, who looked askant at Cyril while explaining that she had bought a ring the previous Wednesday.

“ I remember perfectly, madame,” said the salesman, and having produced a tray of rings, promptly called attention to one which she admitted to be indistinguishable from her own. Outside the shop, Cy’ril made another effort to induce her to have something to eat. “ In fact,” he cried, when she persisted in her cold refusal, “ you can’t bring yourself to forgive me yet.” -“ I never shall,” she retorted, and turned away without offering her hand. During the next few days he felt like a fish out of water. He lost interest in his usual avocations, and blamed himself severely for the absurdity of his recent suspicions, no matter "how strong the evidence had been. As it was he had accused Philippa of theft one hour, and—well, he supposed he must have fallen in love with her the next. She was seldom out of his thoughts. He imagined her sending back the ring without losing a moment, accompanied by a letter of dismissal to its donor, and wondered whether the affair had definitely ended there. So that it was an int<vnc»» to see it on her finger again! That was 10 days later at Lady Alanstoiu- s dance, where he had never dreamed of qneeting her, though it was true that he knew his hostess was an old friend of Airs Wentworth’s. Philippa was dancing when he arrived, but he felt certain she had recognised him, and a few minutes later, when the band ceased to play, he went towards her, anxious concerning his reception. She looked up into his face with a halfdefiant expression, and must have noticed that his eyes were fixed on her right hand. In fact, she raised it to her corsage, as if to thrust the ring upon his attention. “This is a pleasure I didn’t dare to expect,” he said. “Nor I,” she answered, and then to break the embarrassing silence, he added, “ Have you heard from Airs Wentworth since your visit? ” “ Oh, dear, yes. She came to my’ flat two or three days ago. She had'come to London about her ring.” “ So she found it after all ? ” “ A few hours after our departure, though she wouldn’t if the fine weather had continued.” “ What in the world had the weather to do -with it? ” demanded Cy’ril. “ Her theory is,” Philippa explained, “ that when I gave it back to her she must have slipped it on her finger, and when she was letting Airs Dixon out she took her umbrella from the stand. The, ring, being too large, no doubt, slipped off, and - when Airs Dixon went out in the rain on Alonday’ afternoon it fell at her feet.” “And,” suggested Cyril, taking Philippa’s hand as they stood alone in a corner of the room while everybody else was dancing again, “ Airs Wentworth gave you this one ? ” “How clever of you! ” cried Philippa. “ Because such a suspicions person might have imagined all kinds of things seeing it on my finger again. It appears,” she continued, “ that Air Wentworth was rather put out ” “ Good gracious! You don’t mean that lie was iealous.”

Extraordinary — after 25 years of life together, wasn’t it? But anyhow, he insisted that she must know who had sept the ring in a registered envelope without a word of explanation. In order to' convince him that she attached no importance to it, she suggested bestowing it on me. It seemed a pitv to wear it in spite of its disagreeable associations.” As she ceased speaking she cooil v drew it off her finger. Of course,’ she said, “ strictly speaking, it is your property.” “ I should like to change it to -lIIOFt row, he suggested, "if you would meet me at Crane and Shaw’s.” Say 1 o clock, then we can go on to the Carlton afterwards.” One o’clock,” she murmured, as he slipped the ring into his waistcoat pocket. And at last I am quite forgiven? ” he asked, whereupon she held out her hands. “ Are you going to ask me to dance? ” she said.