The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-08-04

But I thought Harry'd told you The
Chatworth ring wasn't Bessie's."
1t had the effect of startling then
all apart. and then drawing them closer
together again around the table Oval
the uncorked bottles.
why" Judge Butler went on, "thif
ring is a celebrated thing. It's the
Crew Idol!'" He threw the name out
as if hat in itself explained everything,
but the three women, at least, were
blank.
why celebrated?" Clara objected.
THE stones were only sapphires.''
Kerr smiled at this measure of fame.
"Quite So" he nodded to her, "but
there are several sorts of valde about
that ring. Its g for one
He had the attention of the table. as
lie they sensed behind his words more
even than Judge Butler could have
told them.
And then the superstition about it.
It's rather a pretty tale" said Kerr,
looking at Flora. you've seen the
ring-a figure of Vishnu bent back
ward into a circle, with a head of sap
phire: two yellow stones for the cheeks
and the brain of him of the one blue.
Just as a piece of carving 1t is so fine
h a Cellini couldn't have equaled it,
but no one knows when or where it
was made. The first that is known.
the Shah Jehan had 1t in his treasure
house. The story Is he stole it, but,
however that may be, he gave it as a
betrothal gift to his wife-possibly the
most beautiful"-his eyebrows signaled
to Flora his uncertainty of that fact
without doubt the best-loved woman
In the world. When she died 1t was
buried with her-no in the tomb itself
but In the Tai Mehal; and for a cen
fury or SO 1t lay there and gathered
legends about it as thick as dust. 1t
was believed to be a talisman of good
fortune-especially in love.
TT had age; it had intrinsic value;
1t had beauty, and that one other
quality no man can resist-it was the
only thing of its kind in the world
At all events, it was too much for old
Neville Crew, when he saw it there
some couple of hundred years ago.
When he left India the ring went with
him.. He never told how he got 1t,
but lucky marriages came with 1t. and
the Crews would not take the House
of Lords for 1t. Their women have
worn it ever since"
For a moment the wonder of the
tale and he curious spark of excite
ment it had produced in the teller
kept the listeners silent. Clara was
the first to return to facts. Then
Bessie" she prompted eagerly.
Kerr turned his glass in meditative
fingers. She wore 1t as young Chat
worth's wife" He held them all in AN
increasing tension, as IL he drew them
toward him.
THE elder Chatworth, Lord Grew,
is a bachelor, but, Of course, the ring
reverted to him on Chatworth's death
And Lord only Knows" the judge
broke in, "how 1t got shipped with
Bessie's property. Crew was out of
England at the time. He kept the
wires hot about it, and they man
aged to keep the fact OF what the ring
was quiet-but 1t got out today when
Purdie found 1t was gone. You see
he was showing it-and without special
permission"
Flora had a bewildered feeling tina
this judicial summing up of facts
wasn't the sort Of thing the evening
had led up to. She couldn't see. If this
was what 1t amounted to, why Harry
had changed his mind about telling
them at the dinner table. She could
not even understand where this be-
longed In the march of events in their
story, u Clara took 1t up. clipped it
out, and fitted 1t into its place.
"Then there will he pressure-enor-