ring."

Then he asked her boldly various questions, and she showed him her
rings, and gave him advice about the setting. There was no special
custom, she told him, ruling such rings as this he desired to bestow.
The gem might be the lady's favorite or the lover's favorite; and to
choose the lady's month stone was very well indeed.

Very well indeed, the Virginian thought. But not quite well enough for
him. His mind now busied itself with this lore concerning jewels, and
soon his sentiment had suggested something which he forthwith carried
out.

When the ring was achieved, it was an opal, but set with four small
embracing diamonds. Thus was her month stone joined with his, that their
luck and their love might be inseparably clasped.

He found the size of her finger one day when winter had departed, and
the early grass was green. He made a ring of twisted grass for her,
while she held her hand for him to bind it. He made another for himself.
Then, after each had worn their grass ring for a while, he begged her
to exchange. He did not send his token away from him, but most carefully
measured it. Thus the ring fitted her well, and the lustrous flame
within the opal thrilled his heart each time he saw it. For now June was
near its end; and that other plain gold ring, which, for safe keeping,
he cherished suspended round his neck day and night, seemed to burn with
an inward glow that was deeper than the opal's.

So in due course arrived the second of July. Molly's punishment had got
as far as this: she longed for her mother to be near her at this time;
but it was too late.

XXXV. WITH MALICE AFORETHOUGHT

Town lay twelve straight miles before the lover and his sweetheart, when
they came to the brow of the last long hill. All beneath them was like
a map: neither man nor beast distinguishable, but the veined and tinted
image of a country, knobs and flats set out in order clearly, shining
extensive and motionless in the sun. It opened on the sight of the
lovers as they reached the sudden edge of the tableland, where since
morning they had ridden with the head of neither horse ever in advance
of the other.

At the view of their journey's end, the Virginian looked down at his
girl beside him, his eyes filled with a bridegroom's light, and, hanging
safe upon his breast, he could feel the gold ring that he would slowly
press upon her finger to-morrow. He drew off the glove from her left
hand, and stooping, kissed t