The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1910-09-29

and look. 1t was still glorious. What
a pity she must take it off!
But even in the refuge of her own
rooms the ring incircled Flora with
unease. The light of it on her finger
made her restless. 1t wasn't that she
was apprehensive of it, but she could
not forget it. She could hear the
maid Marrika moving about in the
room beyond. She slipped it off her
finger on to the dressing table, and it
lay among her laces like a purple
prism, cast by some unearthly sun in
a magic glass. She had jewels, ru-
bies even-the most precious-but
nothing that gave her this sense of in
diVidUal beauty, of beauty so keen as
to be disturbing. She emptied her
jewel casket in glittering heap
around it. 1t shone out unquenched.
Marrika was coming in; and quickly
Flora swept the jewels and the sap
phire back into the casket, turned the
key upon them and thrust it back in
the far corner Of the drawer. She
would give every one great surprise
when the ring was properly set. She
glanced nervously over her shoulder
to see if Marrika had noticed her
action. The Russian had been NOV
ing to and fro between the wardrobe
and the dressing table with a droning
thread of song.
All the while Flora was being
combed and laced and hooked her
eyes we're alertly on the dressing
table drawer that remained a little
open; and presently she caught her.
self vaguely speculating on how, after
she had been fastened up and into her
clothes so securely, she could dispose
upon herself the sapphire. How had
she arrived at this consideration? No
course of reasoning led up to it. She
was annoyed with herself. If she
wasn't going to wear the ring on her
finger, and show it, why did she want
to take it with her at all? For fear
it might be lost? Lost, in her jewel
box, in the back of the drawer! She
Dlushed for herself.
Through the long afternoon it was
more apparent to her than the faces
of the people around her. She was
restless to get back to it, but people
talked interminably At the luncheon
they talked of Kerr Flora knew these
girls felt little resentment that she
had so easily captured Harry Cressy;
for Harry had been more than an
eligible man in the little city. He
had been an eligible parsonage. Not
that he had money; not that his fami-
ly tree was plainly planted in their
midst; but that without these two
things he had achieved what, with
these, the people he knew were all
striving for. He stood before them
as the embodiment of what they most
believed Imperfect bodily splendor,
and perfect knowledge of how to get
on in the world; and the fact that he
wouldn't quite be one of them, but
after five years still stood a little Off
made him shine with greater bril-
lance, especially in the eyes of\these
girls. 1t was hard, they seemed to
feel, that such an apparently remote
and difficult person should have sue
cumbed so easily; and now that new
luminary of equal luster was appar-
ent in their sky, Flora felt their re-
marks a little triumphantly aimed at
her.
But between the thread of interest
the table group wove together, kept
flashing up her furtive desire to be
away, to be at home, to see what had
happened to the sapphire. OF course,
she knew that nothing could have hap
pened; but she wanted to look at It,,
to open the casket and see the flash
of it before her eyes.
They were dining early that night
on account of the Buffers box party,
but it was nearly eight o'clock before
Flora reached the house.V And 1t was,
of course, for that reason that she ran
upstairs-ran wildly, regardlessly, be-
fore the eyes of Shima-and along the
hall, her high heels clacking on the
hard floors, and through her bedroom
to the dressing room, snatched open
the table drawer, unlocked the casket
with twitch of the key--and, ali, It
was there! 1t was really reali Why.