"I never heard of such an utter villain!" exclaimed Lady Gethin. "I perfectly remember the death of old Deering. The next heir had been carried off by fever just before, making way rather unexpectedly for Gilbert.
"This man, Travers Deering, who had had a quarrel with his cousin, was in the office of the family solicitor, and was sent out to look for him in South America, as he had not been heard of for some time. The story goes that he met him and gave him rather a large sum of money for his expenses, which Gilbert took away up to some barbarous place, where he had left his baby girl. He was murdered and robbed in an outbreak of roughs, and the child was burned, they said, in the fire which consumed Gilbert's hut or house. It was all in the papers at the time, and Deering made search for the child, offered rewards, etc., and did not take possession of the property for some little time."
"That lynching business was a stroke of luck for Deering," said Lambert feebly.
"If not inconvenient, I should like to see the ring you mentioned," said Lady Gethin.
"Certainly," said Lambert. "Glynn, ask Elsie to bring the little despatch-box from the table in my room."
Glynn went to deliver the message, and Elsie, who came down-stairs, inquired anxiously if her father was not overtired. Glynn assured her that he seemed better for the relief of complete confidence. "I trust we shall be able to find a way out of all his difficulties," he concluded.
Elsie brought the box, and placing it in his hands, looked up in his eyes with a sweet, frank smile. "If his mind is at rest, he will soon be better."
"I am sure he will," said Glynn, his heart swelling with infinite compassion, as he thought of the tangled villainous mesh which had twined itself round her pure and simple life. To him belonged the task of protecting and delivering her. "And you too," he added, "you need rest and a sense of security."
"When I see him well, I too shall be myself again."
Glynn took her hand, and kissed it reverently. Something of consciousness called the color to her cheek at the touch of his lips, and it was with a faint, delicious glow of hope that Glynn went back to Lambert, who, drawing out a key which hung to his watch-chain, unlocked the box. After a little search he produced a small case from which he took an old-fashioned gold ring, two hands clasped, and a bracelet of tiny turquoises on each wrist. "There," said Lambert, "that is the ring I took from the poor fellow's hand after he had breathed his last."