Eustacie was looking critically at it. “Is that a talisman ring?” she enquired. “‘I thought it would be quite different! It is nothing but a gold ring with some figures on it!”
“Careful, Eustacie!” said Sir Tristram, with a slight smile. “You will find that Ludovic regards it as sacrosanct.”
Ludovic raised his eyes from adoration of the ring. “By God, I do! There is nothing I can say to you, Tristram, except that I could kiss your feet for what you have done for me!”
“I beg you won’t, however. I have done very little.”
Miss Thane said: “It has been under our very noses. The audacity of it! How could he dare?”
“Why not?” said Sir Tristram. “Would any of us have suspected it had it not been lost, and then searched for in such a desperate fashion?”
An idea occurred to Miss Thane. She turned her eyes towards her brother, and said in moved tones: “So we owe it all to Hugh! My dear, this becomes too much for me. I shall not easily recover from the shock.”
“And everything—but everything!—we did was quite useless!” said Eustacie, quite disgusted.
“I know,” said Miss Thane, sadly shaking her head. “It does not bear thinking of.”
“I do not know why you should complain,” remarked Sir Tristram. “You have had a great deal of adventure, which is what I understood you both to want.”