This was the name of Terence O’More’s mother, and the ring had been a wedding gift from her godfather, and the one valuable possession that she had clung to all her troubled life. But Bird knew nothing of this.
What could Bird do with it? She pondered—her city life had made her shrewd; she knew the miseries of the poor who went to the pawn shops, and guessed that any one in the neighbourhood might undervalue the ring, or likely enough say that she stole it.
Mr. Clarke—she would go to him! Now was the time! She borrowed a hat and wrap from the woman of whom the rooms were rented and stole out. In an hour she came back with a triumphant look upon her face, and laying a roll of bills before her aunt, said, “I’ve sold my keepsake; now we will have a nurse for Billy right away.”
After she understood about the money, and found that it was one hundred dollars, Mrs. O’More broke down and cried like a baby, telling Bird that she was a real lady and no mistake. And then adding, to Bird’s indignation, “I wonder did you get the value o’ the ring, or did he cheat you, the old skin!” But, nevertheless, the nurse came, and not an hour too soon.
Meanwhile a certain rich man sat at his library desk, holding a diamond ring in his hand, saying, half aloud: “I believe the girl’s story, though I suppose most people would say she stole the ring, or was given it by those who did. It is healthier to believe than to doubt. I shall investigate the matter to-morrow and keep the ring for the child. It is a fine stone worth four times the sum I gave her, but she would not take any more than the one hundred dollars, nor was it wise for me to press her. Ah! letters inside! Bertha Rawley! She said her grandmother was an Englishwoman. That new superintendent of the Northboro Art School is named Rawley. He studied at South Kensington. I wonder if they could be related. O’More. I think that name comes into that Mill Farm deed mix-up. I will write to Rawley at once and see what is known about the girl in Laurelville, for something tells me that child is ‘one of these little ones’ who should be helped.”