LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2345, 8 October 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE lIARQDIB’ RING : A VARY OLD MAID’S STORY. (Concluded ) 1 She knows something,’ said the odious colonel, shaking his head wisely; ‘tell the truth, Miss Barstowe ; don’t screen the cad. Did you see him crib it, ch?’ The room seemed turning round. I thought I should faint ; but I made an effort. * I don’t understand you. Colonel Poddleton,’l stammered out; ‘I saw nothing of any consequence.’ ‘Oh, br.t yon saw something that’s evident. Now, my dear Agnes, keep quiet I know how to manage these things. We have experience, I can tell you, in the army. Let everyone leave the room, and Misa B-rstowe and I will have a little conversation —a tote a-tete.’

And then the nngentlemanly creature laughed one of his great horse-laughs ; and this laugh, together with the idea of being orces-ex iininod by such a wretch, made mo feel quite hysterical, and 1 began to cry. Then dear, kind Misa Jones spoke up, and said I abotild not be worried, and Mrs Blacker aLo interfered ; and they took me Into the little drawing-room and put me on a sofa, and between them they got out of mo all I knew. I made Mrs Blacker promise she would do nothing about it until next morning, and until she was quite, quite sure the ring was not in the house, and Misa Jones said she would bo silent as the grave. But, oh dear, how miserable I was when I got home, and hadn’t even mother to tell it all to, for she was sound asleep. It seemed to me such a terrible thing that I was the one to brand the Marquis as a thief, and It did seem so hard that I should have been the one to see him do what was, no doubt, suspicious ; for, turn it over as I might, I couldn’t conceal that from myself. _ It had an ugly look, there was no denying it; but, oh. dear, what should I do if I had to swear to it in open court before judge and jury ? I grew quite cold all over at the thought. It was quite early dawn when an idea suddenly struck me. I would warn the Marquis. If he returned the ring all would bo right. I got up and dressed myself, then I sat down and I wrote a few words. It was a very difficult letter to write, but I worded it aa delicately aa I could. I affected to think that It was a joke, or something. When I had it written I tied a thick veil over my face and, with mother’s fur cloak over me, I slipped out of the house and down the hill to the lower town, where the Marquis lived over Skimps the grocer’s. As I drew near my courage began to fail me. What if Mrs Skimps were looking out, and were to see me putting in a letter for the Marquis at this hour of the morning. Why, in such a place aa Woaton, my character wouldn’t be worth three pins. I was still hesitating, when the Bide door—the private one—opened, and who should come out but the Marquis himself. He carried in his hand a little valise, and he had a slouched hat all over his eyes. He shut the door to very softly, and turned away in the direction of the railway. My heart stood still, and—would you believe it —the tears actually came into my eyes It seemed to me such a terrible thing that a gentleman like the Marquis should stoop to such a low crime as robbery. But who could doubt it now ? Bat I was not one to stop him if he were trying to escape, so I let him go. When the news was known that day the whole place was in commotion. It was in vain Skimps protested that the Marquis had alwaya intended leaving by the early train, that he had sent the luggage on the day before, and that ho was a most honorable gentleman and had paid his bill regular. No one minded him. There waa a universal howl against the Marquis, and Colonel Pod. dlaton went up by the afternoon train to London, and set the detectives on his track. For days I lived in terror lest he should be taken, and that I should be brought In evi dence against him ; but days and weeks went by, and nothing was heard of him. All the same, my nerves wore greatly shattered. Besides the reproach I felt at having betrayed the unfortunate Marquis, my life was a burden to me owing to this business. Everybody seemed to think it was our fault, mother’s and mine Even at the deanery I heard they talked of ’our imprud-mce,’ which waa too bad, considering they had introduced him. That dreadful Colonel fioddleton never let it go ; he was always bringing up the story, and jeering at me in his dreadful loud voice, even long after Agnes Dalrymple had married him, and people were beginning to forget it. I declare I got to dread the sight of him coming Into a room. At last mother said is would be far better for ns to go away for a bit. It was the year of the Paris Exhibition, and little Miss Jones proposed that she and I should take a trip there, while mother went to Letty at Bath, It all fitted in very ni- ely ; for Mias Jones had a cousin who kept a boarding-house, or pension as they called it, in the Rue Neuve St. Augustine; there wo went, and very comfortable we were. Mrs Reid was quite the lady, and her connections being all firstrate, we had pleasant society every evening, with music, cards, and sometimes dancing. The relief, too, of hearing nothing about the Marquis’s story waa quite setting me up, and when I bought a Paris bonnet I looked, Miss Jones said, ten year younger. The last day of our slay Mrs Reid had a little party for us. There were a great many foreigners, and they came and went In that nice way they have. There was music in one room, and cr.rds in another, and everything was going on as pleasant as possible, when Mrs Reid came to me.

‘ There is a gentleman here knows you very well, ’ she said. And looking up, who should I see standing before mo, with his hand out, but the marquis himself. I declare the whole room seemed to me to go round. Miss Jones said afterwards she thought I was going to faint. I behaved splendidly—she said. But 1 only acted on the spur of the moment. ‘ I haven’t the pleasure of your acquaintance, air,’ I said’ ‘it is a mistake.’ ‘ A mistake—nonsense,’ he said. And I declare, although I knew him to he a thief, my heart weet out to his nice kind voice. ‘ Why. Miss Barstowe,’ he said, ‘ don’t you know me P And there’s Mias Jones.’ I was trembling all over, and Miss Jones murmured, ‘lmpertinent swindler,’ bat I don’t know if he heard her. He looked at her very steadily, and then made us a bow—a very low one. ‘lt shall be as you like, ladies,’ he said, and turned away. I felt a great lump in my throat, and as I am inclined to nervous hysterics, I thought it better to get away to my own room. And presently Miss Jones came in, and then Mrs JReid. They were most kind to me, for I was very hysterical indeed. It did seem to me, as it were, so hard that it was put on me to be always his evil genius. I squeezed Mias Jones’s linger for her not to tell Mrs Eeid. But she said—‘Jemima, it is only fair to put Allola on her guard. She won’t believe that the Marquis could do such a thing.’ 1 He is a gentleman of the highest respectability, my dear Miss Barstowe; one of the old Legitimist families.’ ‘ And Colonel Poddleton said he was a pretender,’ I said, through my tears. ‘All the same, he stole Agnes Dalrymplo's ring.’ Miss Jones replied. ‘ Surely, Jemima, you saw it with your own eyes.’ ‘ It might be kleptomania,’ I murmured. ' Nonsense, my dear. He could have sent it back.’

‘I really think, Mi*a Baratowe, it must bo some mlatake, ’ remarked Mrs Held. But you know I couldn’t say that; and wo went all over the story again, and Mrs Heid had to confess it had a very ugly look ; bat. I made her promise not to let it go any further. We left Paris next morning. After what had happened, indeed, I did not care to stay ; but all the pleasure of my trip was spoiled to me by this last episode. Wo found mother back again in Royal orescent; and almost the first thing she said to mo was—- • Jemima, I have a great piece of news fur yen! Q-uesanow!’ Of course I could not—who over can. As for Mias Jones, she guessed the most Improbable things. She always does the suno with riddles. Mother, continuing to smile, came out with it at last—- ‘ Agnes Dalrympie has found her ring,’ she .Bald ; ‘ the Marquis’ ring !’ 1 Where ?’ ■‘Just imagine—In the skirt she wore that evening. It fell among the quillings, and there it lay till the dress was unpicked the other day. They are in the greatest glee er it.’

Mias Jones and I looked at one another aghast. Was there ever to be an end of the business ? Of coorae I wrote at once to Mrs Reid, telling her how wrong the whole story was. I hear she calls us two meddlesome old maids. But I had no way of explaining the matter to the Marquis. I could not recall the words I had said ; end, although I daresay he did not care, still it pains me. I should like to see him once more, just to tell him how sorry I am ; but I suppose we shall never meet again. And that is why I have written this, in the faint hope that it may catch his eye. and that he may know how very much I have suffered.