Allison sat watching her as she took a key from its hiding-place and opening the big chest in the corner, searched in it for a while. When the old woman raised herself up and turned toward Allison again, there lay on the palm of her hand a gold ring. It was large and massive, and had evidently been rubbed and polished lately, for it shone bright in the light as she held it up to the lamp.
“Look ye at it,” said the mistress. “Until this day I have never, for forty years and mair, set e’en upon it. I hae been twice marriet—though folk here ken naething about that—and this was my first marriage ring. It was my mother’s before me, and her mother’s before her. It held a charm, they said, to bring happy days, but it brought none to me—he died within the year. The charm was broken, maybe, because I was a wilfu’ lassie—an undutifu’ daughter. But it may work again wi’ you. Take it, and put it on your finger.”
But Allison refused it, and put her hands behind her.
“And what for no’? It’s my ain to give or to keep as I like. Ye needna be feared,” said Mistress Jamieson, with offence. “But why should ye wish to give it to me?”
“Because I hae naebody else to gi’e it to. There’s not, to my knowledge, one living that ever belonged to me. I may be dead before ye come back again. And I like ye, Allison Bain. And the ring may keep evil from ye, if ye wear it on your hand.”
Allison looked anxiously into the old woman’s eager face. What did she mean? Why did she offer to her a marriage ring? Did she know more than others knew about her? Was a new danger coming upon her? She must not anger her, at any rate. So when the old woman took her hand again she did not resist.
“There is the charm written on the inside of it, ‘Let love abyde till death devyde.’ Ye’ll see it by the daylicht.”
But the ring was far too large for Allison’s finger. It slipped from it and fell to the ground.
“Eh! me! is that an ill sign, think ye?” said the mistress.
“It is a sign that your grandmother was a bigger woman than me,” said Allison with an uncertain smile. “It is very kind of you, Mistress Jamieson, to think of giving it to me, but—”