“To Jane’s surprise, both the butler and the lady’s-maid changed their manner towards her after a while, and became quite friendly: indeed, Hollands even took an opportunity to thank Jane for her good advice, and to say that he was beginning to see things in a different light; and Georgina made her a present of a neat silver pencil-case. Jane couldn’t quite understand it; but having no guile in herself, she weren’t up to suspecting guile in other folks, and she were only too thankful to see anything that looked like a change for the better.
“Things were in this fashion, when one morning, just before Sir Lionel’s breakfast-time, as Jane was sweeping and dusting the back drawing-room, John Hollands looked in. There’d been a large dinner-party the night before, and the family was rather late. Steps were heard overhead in her ladyship’s bedroom, and then Georgina comes in. ‘Come in here, Mr Hollands,’ she says, ‘and look here, both of you; see what I’ve found on the stairs!’ The butler came in, and the lady’s-maid holds out to him a beautiful bracelet all sparkling with jewels. He took it in his hand and turned it over, and says, ‘It must have been dropped by one of the ladies as dined here yesterday; you’d better give it to her ladyship.’—‘Of course I shall,’ says the other; ‘only there’s no harm looking at it.—Ain’t it a love of a bracelet, Jane? Just take it in your hand and look at it afore I take it up to mistress.’ Jane took the bracelet, and said that it was a beauty indeed, and was going to return it to Georgina, but that wicked woman had turned her head away, pretending not to notice Jane’s hand stretched out to her. Then steps were heard close to the door, and Georgina cried out half aloud, ‘There’s her ladyship coming; won’t you catch it, Jane! Come along, Mr Hollands;’ and they were gone out at another door in a moment, just as Lady Morville came in at the other end of the room. And there stood poor Jane, her face all in a blaze, with her broom in one hand and the bracelet in the other.
“Scarcely knowing what she did, but not wishing; of course, to be found with the bracelet in her fingers, Jane tried to slip it into her pocket; but it wouldn’t do, her mistress had already seen it. So she says, quiet and calm-like, ‘Jane, don’t attempt to hide it from me; I believe that’s one of the bracelets Sir Lionel gave me on my last birthday. I couldn’t find either of them when I was dressing for dinner last night, nor Georgina either. Come, tell me, Jane, how did it come into your possession?’
“What could poor Jane say or do? She bursts out a-crying, poor thing, and then turns her round, when she’d thrown up a little prayer to the Lord from her heart, and she says, ‘Please, my lady, I never saw the bracelet till a few minutes ago. Georgina brought it in while I was sweeping, and showed it to Mr Hollands and me; and I was just going to give it back to Georgina, for they said that some lady must have dropped it last night—and I never knew it was your ladyship’s—and they ran out of the room and left it in my hand—and then your ladyship came in and found me with it.’
“Now you may be sure, sir, as Jane had no easy work to get them words out, and, I suppose, Lady Morville thought as she was making up a lie; so she says very gravely, ‘I don’t at all understand you, Jane: how can Georgina have brought the bracelet to you? She was searching for the pair last night herself, and knows that they were missing from my jewel-case. And how can she have said that some lady must have dropped this bracelet, when she must know it perfectly well to be my own? Besides, it is only a few minutes ago that she told me she believed I should find it in this room somewhere, only she didn’t like to say why.’
“Jane saw it all now—they had laid a cruel trap for her, and she was caught in it. At first she had no answer but tears, and then she declared that she had told the simple truth, and nothing but the truth. ‘It may be so, Jane,’ said her mistress; ‘of course what you say is possible, but, I fear, not very probable.’
“She rung the bell, and Georgina answered it with a smirk on her face. ‘Just call Hollands, and come in here with him,’ said her ladyship. The butler soon came in; and Jane says, if ever the devil looked through any man’s eyes, she believes he did through his, as he glared at her with a look of triumph, his mistress’s back being turned towards him. Lady Morville then asked them if Jane’s story was true, and if Georgina had shown her the bracelet. John Hollands lifts up his hands and eyes, and cries out, ‘Was there ever such hypocrisy and deceit!’ As for Georgina, she pretends to get into a passion, and declares as it was all a make-up thing to rob her and the butler of their characters. And then she says, ‘Why, my lady, I’ve missed things myself, and I’ve had my suspicions; but I’ve not liked to say anything. There’s a silver pencil-case, which my dear mother gave me, and it’s got my initials on it: it’s gone from my room, and I can’t hear anything about it.’ Jane at once pulls the pencil-case out of her pocket, and lays it on the table. ‘I see how it is,’ she says; ‘you two are determined to ruin me; but the Lord above, he knows I’m innocent.—Your ladyship, Georgina made me a present of that pencil-case a short time ago. I didn’t want to take it; but she wouldn’t be refused, and said I must keep it as a token of good-will from her.’—‘Well, did I ever hear such assurance!’ cried Georgina. ‘I wonder what she’ll say next? But one thing’s clear, my lady: I can’t stay here, to be suspected of robbing your ladyship. I’ve not lost my character yet, if Jane’s lost hers. But, at any rate, she has got your ladyship’s bracelet; you found her with it yourself. Now, as she has got the one, she’ll know, of course, where the other is. You may be sure, my lady, that the same person as took the one took the pair. It ain’t likely there were two thieves in the case. If I might be so bold, I would, if I were in your ladyship’s place, ask her to produce both the bracelets, and restore them to you; and when she’s done that, it will be for your ladyship to say whether you do or do not believe her to be innocent, and that she’s told the truth about my pencil-case.’
“Nobody said anything for a minute, for it were plain as Lady Morville were very much grieved and perplexed. At last she turns to Jane, and says, ‘You hear what Georgina says, Jane; it is not unreasonable. Two bracelets have been taken, and one of the pair is found on you. I cannot say how you came by it, but it seems most likely that you must know where the other is. Produce it, and the matter shall go no further. I’ve always had the highest opinion of you up to this moment; and if sudden temptation in this case has led you into a sin, the best and wisest thing for you to do is just to own it, and to give up the other bracelet, and then the matter shall drop there, and we will all agree that by-gones shall be by-gones, for the best among us may be overtaken in a fault.’ But by this time poor Jane had recovered herself a bit. She dried her tears, and, looking her mistress steadily in the face, said, ‘I have told your ladyship the simple truth, and nothing but the truth; and I appeal to your ladyship, have you ever found me out in any untruthfulness or deceit all these years as you’ve knowed me? I see plainly enough why Mr Hollands and Georgina have been plotting this cruelty against me; but it would, I know, be of no use if I was to tell your ladyship what their carryings on has been—I should not be believed. But there’s One whose eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good, and he will set it all right when he sees it to be best, and he’ll clear my character.’
“No more were said at that time; but in the afternoon Lady Morville sends for Jane, and has her in her own room by herself, and she tells her as appearances are very much against her; but as she’d never knowed anything to her discredit before, and she had borne a very high character all the time as she’d been at the Hall, this matter should be hushed up, but she felt it wouldn’t be right for her to remain. And so my poor sister, as she couldn’t say no otherwise than she did before, and as she couldn’t bear to face the other servants any more, left the Hall that very night by her own wish, and told me her story as I’ve told it you; for we’ve talked it over together scores of times, and I’ve got it quite by heart. And from that day to this she’s never looked up; for, as it says in the psalm, ‘the iron has entered into her soul.’
“I couldn’t stop long after that in Monksworthy, and so we all came over here; and the Lord has prospered us—all but poor Jane; and yet I know she’ll tell you he has never left her nor forsaken her, and he’s made his promises ‘yea and Amen’ to her, spite of her sorrow. But it’s a very sore trial, and the burden of it lies heavy on her heart still.