Hetty’s eyes devoured my face when I rushed into our bedroom.
“I am having a delightful time,” I said, “everything is going on splendidly.”
“Oh, do, do tell me?” said Hetty, sitting up on her sofa, and letting her work tumble to the ground.
“Yes, presently I will; but my visitors have not gone yet.”
“Haven’t they? They are staying a long time.”
“Yes, and they will probably remain a little longer. I have come now to fetch the ring.”
“Oh, Rosamund, you have not given way? You are not going to part with the ring?”
“Not a bit of it,” I answered, as I unlocked my small bag, and taking the ring from its hiding-place slipped it on my finger. “Goodbye for the present, Hetty,” I said; “think of all pleasant and improbable things till I return to you.”
I flew down-stairs to the two who were now my friends. Lady Ursula made me seat myself next to her on the sofa, and Captain Valentine, taking the ring from me, turned it round and round in the light. How that central ruby did flash—how blinding and bewildering were the rays which it shot from the depths of its heart. I had an uncomfortable feeling, as if the costly gem was going to mesmerise me.
Suddenly I uttered an exclamation. By some deft movement, done so quickly that I could not follow it, Captain Valentine had touched a spring, and the ring had altered. The massive gold of the setting moved aside like tiny doors; the central ruby shot up a fiercer ray of almost triumph; it revolved slowly from its position, and left the inner mechanism or skeleton of the ring bare to view.