I am now a man of honour, and
entitled to the duello. What will you take for it, Mistress Lorna? At a
hazard, say now.'

'I am not accustomed to sell things, sir,' replied Lorna, who did not
like him much, else she would have answered sportively, 'What is it
worth, in your opinion?'

'Do you think it is worth five pounds, now?'

'Oh, no! I never had so much money as that in all my life. It is very
bright, and very pretty; but it cannot be worth five pounds, I am sure.'

'What a chance for a bargain! Oh, if it were not for Annie, I could make
my fortune.'

'But, sir, I would not sell it to you, not for twenty times five pounds.
My grandfather was so kind about it; and I think it belonged to my
mother.'

'There are twenty-five rose diamonds in it, and twenty-five large
brilliants that cannot be matched in London. How say you, Mistress
Lorna, to a hundred thousand pounds?'

My darling's eyes so flashed at this, brighter than any diamonds, that
I said to myself, 'Well, all have faults; and now I have found out
Lorna's--she is fond of money!' And then I sighed rather heavily; for of
all faults this seems to me one of the worst in a woman. But even before
my sigh was finished, I had cause to condemn myself. For Lorna took the
necklace very quietly from the hands of Squire Faggus, who had not half
done with admiring it, and she went up to my mother with the sweetest
smile I ever saw.

'Dear kind mother, I am so glad,' she said in a whisper, coaxing mother
out of sight of all but me; 'now you will have it, won't you, dear? And
I shall be so happy; for a thousandth part of your kindness to me no
jewels in the world can match.'

I cannot lay before you the grace with which she did it, all the air
of seeking favour, rather than conferring it, and the high-bred fear of
giving offence, which is of all fears the noblest. Mother knew not what
to say. Of course she would never dream of taking such a gift as that;
and yet she saw how sadly Lorna would be disappointed. Therefore, mother
did, from habit, what she almost always did, she called me to help her.
But knowing that my eyes were full--for anything noble moves me so,
quite as rashly as things pitiful--I pretended not to hear my mother,
but to see a wild cat in the dairy.

Therefore I cannot tell what mother said in reply to Lorna; for when I
came back, quite eager to let my love know how I worshipped her, and
how deeply I was ashamed of myself, for meanly wronging her