The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-11-21

that time. So wnen Jonn Chelmsford
said that our mother sent her dear love
TO her son Harry, and that nothing
save her delicate health had prevented
her from sailing to Virginia in the
same ship to see the son from whom
she had been SO long parted. / gasped
and felt my head reel, and / called up
my mothers face, and verify l felt the
tears start in my eyes, but l was very
weak
Then forth from her pocket Catherine
drew Il ring. and it flashed green with
a great emerald, and particolored with
briiliants, before my eyes, and | was
we'll nigh overcome by the sight of
that, and everything turned black be-
fore me, for it was my Lord Robert
Ea1ing's great ring of exceeding value,
for the theft of which had been trans
ported
Straightway Catherine saw that it
was too much for me. for she knelt
down beside me and called John TO give
her a flask of sweet waters which stood
on the table, and began bathing my
forehead, the while my brother looked
on with something of a jealous frown.
"'Twas thoughtless of me- Harry
she whispered, but they say joy does
not KILL and-and-dost thou know the
ringE'
l nodded. 1t seemed to me that no
jewels could ever be mined which
would know as i knew that green star
of emerald and those encircling bril-
liants. That ring l knew to my cost
My Lord Ealing is dead" she said
land thou knowest that he was kins-
man of the Chelmsfords, and after his
funeral came this ring and a letter,
art cleared, Harry. And
-and-now l know why thou didst
what thou did Harry, 'twas-'twas-to
shield me-" With that she burst into
great flood of tears, even throwing
herself upon the floor of my cell in
all her slim length and not letting my
brother John raise her, though he
Stroye to do SO.
1t is here that l shall stop the course
of my story TO explain the whole mat
ter of the ring, which at the time 1
was too weak and spent with pain to
fully as Catherine Cayen-
dish related it. 1t was curious and
at the same time a simple tale. as such
tales are wont to be, and it's very sim
plicity made 1t seem then, and seem
now, well nigh incredible.
My Lord Robert Ealing, who had
come to the ball at Cavendish Court
that long last year, was distant kins-
man of our family and unwedded, but
a man who went through the world
with a silly leer of willingness toward
all womankind. And twas this very
trait perhaps which accounted for his
unwedded, although lord,
though the fact that his estates We're
encountered may have had somewhat
to do with it. Be that as it may, he
lived alone, except for few old ser
wants, and was turned sixty when,
long after my transportation, he
welded lis cook, who gave him three
daughters and one son, to whom the
estate went, but the ring and the letter
came to the Chelmsfords. The letter,
which l 'afterward saw, was most
curious thing, both as to composition
and spelling and photography, for his
ordship was no scholar. And since the
letter is but short l may perhaps as
well give it entire. After this wise it
ran, being addressed to Colonel John
who was his cousin,
though considerably younger:
Dear Cousin $50 wrote my Lord Ealing).
When this reaches you 1 shall be laid
in silent tomb where. perchance. 1 shall
be more at peace than l have ever ben in
a wurld, which either fitted me not. or L
did not fit At all odds there was a sore
misfit betwixt us in some way. If it was
the blam of the world good ridance and
parden, if it was my blam, let them which
made come to account fort L send
herewith my great emruld ringg, with
1mends which 1 suspect hath been the
means of sending an inosent man into
Ilavery. 1 had mind some years agone to
we'd with Caterin Cavendish, and she bein
4 hard made to approche. having ever
stiff turn of the sholder toward me,
hough L knew not why, 1 was not willin
% resl1 my suite by word of mouth nor
having never a gift in writin by letter.
And so, KNOWN that mades like well such
Kings, / bethought me of my emrud ring,
md on the night of the ball, being up
stair in to lay off my hiatt and cloak.
'toie privily into Catherin's chamber, she
,eing a-danc.n below, and I laid the ring
IN her dressing table, thinkin that she
would see it when she entered, and know
t for a love token.
And then / went myself below, and
she would have none of me, and
made up such a face of ice when I APP
,roached, that methought L had maybe
wasted my emruld ring. So after little
10 the stare / stole, and the ring was not
where I had put it. Then thinkin that the
ing had been stole, and L had neither
hat nor the made. 1 raised a great hue |
md cry, and demanded that a search be
maid and the ring was found Master |
Ningfeld, and he was therefor transport |
d, and l had my ring again. and myself |
NEW not the true fact of the case until |
year agone.
Then feeling that had not much longer |
o live l writ this, thinking that Master /
Ningfeld was in a rich country, and not !.
n sufferin, and a few months more would I
make not much odds to him. The facs of /
he case. cousin, I knew from Madam
'avendish's old servant woman Char
otte, who came to my sister when the
'avendishs left for Virginia. having a
ear of the sea. and later when my sister
led, to my wife, and died but year
gone. and in her deathbed told me what i
he knew. She told me truly, that she |
id see Madam Cavendish on the night of !
he ball go into Caterin's chamber, and
spying my emruld ring her dressing
able, take it up and look at it with ex-
eedinE establishment, and then lay il
own not on the spot wherein 1 had left
:. but on the prayer book on the little
tand beside her bed and then go down.
tairs. frowning.
Then this same Charlotte. having little