very much admired the ring, as any one must who had an
eye for stones; and had often looked at it--into the heart of
it--almost loving it; and while they were talking now, she kept gazing
at it. When Mr. Redmain ended, she stood silent. In her silence, her
attention concentrated itself upon the sapphire. She stood long,
looking closely at it, moving it about a little, and changing the
direction of the light; and, while her gaze was on the ring, Mr.
Redmain's gaze was on her, watching her with equal attention. At last,
with a sigh, as if she waked from a reverie, she laid the ring on the
table. But Mr. Redmain still stared in her face.

"Now what is it you've got in your head?" he said at last. "I have been
watching you think for three minutes and a half, I do believe. Come,
out with it!"

"Hardly _think_, sir," answered Mary. "I was only plaguing myself
between my recollection of the stone and the actual look of it. It is
so annoying to find what seemed a clear recollection prove a deceitful
one! It may appear a presumptuous thing to say, but my recollection
seems of a finer color."

While she spoke, she had again taken the ring, and was looking at it.
Mr. Redmain snatched it from her hand.

"The devil!" he cried. "You haven't the face to hint that the stone has
been changed?"

Mary laughed.

"Such a thing never came into my head, sir; but now that you have put
it there, I could almost believe it."

"Go along with you!" he cried, casting at her a strange look which she
could not understand, and the same moment pulling the bell hard.

That done, he began to examine the ring intently, as Mary had been
doing, and did not speak a word. Mewks came.

"Show Miss Marston out," said his master; "and tell my coachman to
bring the hansom round directly."

"For Miss Marston?" inquired Mewks, who had learned not a little
cunning in the service.

"No!" roared Mr. Redmain; and Mewks darted from the room, followed more
leisurely by Mary.

"I don't know what's come to master!" ventured Mewks, as he led the way
down the stair.

But Mary took no notice, and left the house.

For about a week she heard nothing.

In the meantime Mr. Redmain had been prosecuting certain inquiries he
had some time ago begun, and another quite new one besides. He was
acquainted with many people of many different sorts, and had been to
jewelers and pawnbrokers, gamblers and lodging-house keepers, and had
learned some things to his purpose.