I 



38 Something Advantageous; [January, 



* This — this ring — it is my only valuable possession. It was given to 

 me thirty years ago, by him who is now no more, my cousin John, who 

 loved me. I have clung to it in pain and in sorrow, in diflSculty and in 

 distress ; I have never parted with it. I seemed to be but only separated 

 from him while I had it near my heart. But now, great distress forces 

 ine — tc — to part with it. AVill — will neither of you gentlemen buy it 

 of me. I — I shrink from its going into the hands of utter strangers.' 



* Humph ! ' said Mr. Shaw ; ' there are a couple of sovereigns for it.' 

 She took the money, and then, after one long, lingering look, and a 



fervent kiss at the ring, she laid it on the table, and tottered from the 

 place. I was about to follow her, but Mr. Shaw held me back. 



'Hold! hold!' he said. 



' You are a brute sir,' said I. ' Take your hands off me ; I will buy 

 the ring of you and give it back to her. It breaks her heart to part 

 with it, I see,' 



' I shan't part with it,' he said ; ' you are a very hasty man, doctor.' 



I was very angry, and bounced out of the office. I looked eagerly 

 about for Mrs. Grantham, but could not see her. I walked hurriedly 

 across the square, and as chance would have it, I went in the same 

 direction she did. My first impulse was to speak to her, and my second 

 thought was to follow her, and to see where she went. She crossed 

 Holborn, and traversed some of the long streets that lead into the New 

 Eoad, where she arrived at last, and finally paused at a stone-mason's 

 yard. 



I could have shed tears at that moment, for now I felt why she had 

 parted with her cherished ring. She stayed about a quarter of an hour 

 at the stone-mason's, and then she came out and walked slowly away. I 

 did not follow her further, but I went into the mason's yard, and said 

 to him — 



' Did that lady give you an order ? ' 



' Why, yes, sir, such an one as it is. She has got me to do a stone 

 for two pounds, and she's paid me. I'm to meet her at the church- 

 yard at Barnes to-morrow morning at nine o'clock with it, and put it up. 

 It's only to have on it the name of John James Jordan, and under that, 

 * God bless him.' 



I walked away with a sort of mist before my eyes, and it was an 

 hour before I recovered my composure. ' I will meet her,' thought I, 

 ' at the grave of her last love, and I will be a friend to her, if she never 

 have another in the world. She shall have her ring again, if I force it 

 from the lawyer. She shall have it. I'll go and get it now, at once.' 



I suppose I looked in a very tolerable passion when I got back to Mr. 



