“Nan, it’s a letter from Rhoda,” Bess repeated the information twice before she got any response at all, and then it was only a grunt. It was the morning after the famous mule-back excursion, and Nan was in her room alone until Bess’s entrance.
“Whatever are you doing?” Bess asked when she saw that Nan, strangely enough, didn’t seem to be interested in her bit of information.
“Oh, Bess, I can’t find it anyplace,” Nan looked as though the world had come to an end. She had all that she could do to keep from crying.
“Find what?”
“Oh, my ring. You know the one I mean, the one old Mr. Blake gave me in Scotland last summer. He said it was a family heirloom and that I should keep it as long as I lived and then see that it was passed on down to my children. Now, it’s gone and I’m sure I left it in this room when we went away yesterday.”
“Are you sure, Nan?” Bess looked worried too, now. The ring was a lovely thing with the bluest of blue sapphires in an old-fashioned gold setting. Bess had coveted it herself, and often wanted to wear it. But she respected Nan’s sentiment about the bit of jewelry enough to have not even asked to try it on.
Now it was gone!
“When did you wear it last?”
“Bess, I had it on yesterday morning before we went on that trip by muleback and I took it off because I was afraid I would lose it. I left it in this box I’m sure, and it isn’t here now. I’ve looked through it a dozen times.” As she finished, she proffered the box to Bess, who took it, opened it up, and carefully looked through the trinkets contained therein. The ring wasn’t there.
“Have you told anybody, yet?” Bess questioned.