“Here are the others,” she said, drawing off the sheet of wool and pushing the tray before me.
I did not want any bribing to keep faith with Tom, but many a woman, I fancy, would have had an imperative inducement to do so, whether she cared for him or not, in the prospect of becoming possessed of such diamonds as those. Earrings, pins, stars, buckles, necklace, tiara, bracelets, and brooches. All quaintly fashioned in their old silver settings, but thickly studded with great, pure drops of liquid light, rimmed all about with sparks of fire. I was speechless, almost stunned, with admiration and astonishment.
“They are a fine set,” said Mrs. Smith, composedly, as she fingered them with her slender ivory hands; “but they will want resetting before you can wear them. Don’t let them use gold, my dear; that is what they do nowadays, but it is often only a device to hide a want of pure colour in the stones. I would keep them in silver if I were you.”
“Oh, Mrs. Smith, it seems such a preposterous thing for me to think of ever wearing those!”
“They will be in their most suitable place when worn by my son’s wife,” she replied, with dignity. “They did not come from Mr. Smith’s side, you understand, Kitty; I inherited them, by special bequest. And I should have been grieved,” she added, with a sigh, “to have left them to just anybody—a woman I had never seen—who, perhaps, would be unworthy to wear them. Though,” correcting herself, “I can trust my son not to marry an unworthy woman.”
I threw my arms round the old lady’s neck, and kissed her eagerly. “If ever I have them I will value them, and take care of them as never diamonds were taken care of before,” I cried, almost in tears; “but oh, dear Mrs. Smith, you think I am good enough for Tom, and that is more to me than all the diamonds, lovely as they are.”
“My dearest child, if I live for two years longer, to see you and him made happy, I shall not have much more to live for,” she responded, tenderly. “Be assured I think you good enough for Tom, and the only girl good enough that I have ever met with. There, there, don’t cry! Let us look at the other jewels now. They are not much, compared with the diamonds, of course; but there are some very fine stones amongst them—particularly emeralds.”
So we investigated the remaining trays and compartments, and inspected all the lesser jewels, which, without the diamonds, would have been a splendid possession in the eyes of a reasonable woman—emeralds, opals, rubies, sapphires, strings of pearls, antique watches, lovely cameos and mosaic work, and all sorts of things. Out of these she presently selected a curious and beautiful Maltese cross, and laid it on the table before me. It was of silver, though not much silver was to be seen; there was a large emerald in each of its points, and all the rest was filled in with little diamonds as thickly as they would lie together. She hunted amongst a heap of chains until she found one that would suit it—a chain made of little beads of silver, with a spark of diamond between each bead; and on this she slipped the ring of the Maltese cross, and fastened them round my neck.
“It is not a marriage gift, as the others will be, Kitty,” she said; “this is a little token of friendship from an old woman who has loved you and yours better than she ever expected to love anybody again;” and here her voice changed, and she sighed heavily.
“How lovely! How exquisite! How beautiful!” I murmured, quite overcome with grateful emotion. “Oh, Mrs. Smith, how I shall value it! How very good you are to me!”