Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-09-08

clothes SO securely, size 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. II she
wasn't going to wear the ring on her
finger, and show 1t, why did she want
to take 1t with her at all? For fear
it might be lost? Lost, in her jewel
box, in the back of the drawer! She
blushed for herself.
Through the long afternoon 1t 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 a 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 tt
feel, that such an apparently remote
and difficult person should have sue
cumbed so easily; and now that a new
luminary of equal luster was appar
emit in their sky, Flora felt their re
marks a little triumphantly aimed a
her.
But between the thread of interes
the table group wove' together, KEEP
flashing up her furtive desire to b
away, to be at home, to see what ha'
happened to the sapphire. OF course
she knew that nothing could have hal
pened; but she wanted to look at Il
to open the casket and see the flas
Of it before her eyes.
They were dining early that nigh
on account Of the Buffers box party
but it was nearly eight o'clock befor
Flora reached the house. And it wa
of course, for that reason that she ra
upstairs-ran wildly, regardlessly, b.
, fore the eyes of shima-and along tn
| hall, her high heels clacking on tt
hard floors, and through her bedrool
to the dressing room, snatched ope
I the table drawer, unlocked the caskt
5 with a twitch of the key-and, ah,
Y was there! 1t was really real! VIII,
what had she expected? She W;
laughing at herself.
She was gay in her relief at gettir
back to the sapphire, but at the san
time she was already wondering VIII
she should do about it that night
o take it with her or leave it alone
r Dared she wear it on her finger und'
n her glove? Clara might notice tt
unfamiliar form of the jewel throus
the thin kid. Flora watched her GU
II ously across the table that evenin
fl wondering what was that quality
her by which she acquired. Hither
Flora had accepted it as a fact wit
out question, but now she had a desi
to place it. 1t was not beauty, I
Clara was pretty, like a polish
I Greuze, she was colorless and 1avt
Il less, lacking the vivid heat of ms
It netism. More probably it consist
in a certain sort of sweetness ella
d could produce on occasions, a way S
had of looking and speaking viii
,r Flora could only describe as smoo
IL She made up her mind to leave t
:! sapphire at home; but in her Ii
n moment in her roo the resoluti
failed. Harry, of course, would
IS angry If he knew, but Harry would
lg see the thing under her glove.
d. She came down to where Clara "
IN waiting for her, with the guilty fe
Id ing of a child who has concealed
th contraband cake; but the way Clf
Id looked her over made her console
err that she had not concealed her
ne element.