I said, "Come, Prue, tell me what it is. We didn't use to have any Secrets from one another."
"Nor needed to have," says she in her Tears—"All that's altered now."
"Why should it be?" said I. She made no Answer.
"Come, what is it?" I said.
"Don't you remember saying to me, 'How fine we are!' a Day or two back," says Prue, "when you noted a Ruby Ring on my Finger?"
"A Mock Ruby, you mean! It's a Glass Ring, if ever there was one! I told you, if I wore Jewels at all, they should be real."
"Yes, and I said Nothing, and I dare say you thought I was sulky, but I wasn't. People often make great Mistakes in judging others. Well, that Ring was given me by Tom."
"It wouldn't ruin him then," said I laughing. "Unless indeed, poor Fellow, as is like enough, 'twas palmed upon him for a real Stone. Well, Prue, is this what all the Sighing has been about? You needn't break your Heart, I think, at having accepted it of him."
"Don't laugh, or you'll kill me," says Prudence, "it's no laughing Matter, I can tell you. It don't matter whether the Stone be real or false; but, in fact, it's a Wedding ... no, a Guard-Ring."