for some reason or other, she won't have it to be hers,
so I must just leave matters as I found them."

"Thank you for your trouble," said Bradly, "and I'll keep the ring till
the real owner turns up; and meanwhile, my friend, just take my advice,
and keep as clear of the inside of the Green Dragon as you possibly
can."

When the railway clerk had left him, Thomas Bradly sat for some minutes
in deep thought, and then sought his sister. "Dear Jane," he said,
"there's just another step we're being guided; 'tain't a very broad one,
but I believe it's in the right direction." He then gave her an account
of what he had just heard from his visitor.

"And what do you make of his story, Thomas?" she asked. "Do you think
that the ring really belongs to Lydia Philips, and that she knows
anything about the bag?"

"Yes, Jane, I do; and I'll tell you why. I believe that she was the
person who dropped the Bible in at William Foster's window. Why she did
so, of course I can't say. But I believe the ring slipped off while she
was dropping the book, and now she's afraid to acknowledge the ring for
her own. You know the Bible and the bracelet were in the same bag; so,
as she knew about the Bible, it seems pretty certain she must have known
about the bracelet too. If she owns to the ring, of course it's as good
as owning as she was the person who dropped the Bible. She knows quite
well, you may be sure, that the ring fell into Foster's room, and that
it can only be Foster or his wife that's produced the ring, and she's
afraid of inquiries being set on foot which may trace the missing bag
and bracelet to her. So she's content to lose her ring, and persists in
saying it ain't hers; because if she owned to it, it would raise
suspicions that she or some of her people was concerned with making away
with or hiding away the bag and bracelet, and that might get the Green
Dragon a bad name, and spoil their custom, or even get her and her
family into worse trouble. That's just my opinion; there's foul play,
somewhere, and she knows something about it. The bag's in the place,
hid away somewhere, and she knows where, or she knows them as has had to
do with getting hold of it, and keeping it for their own purposes. So
we must watch and be patient. I feel convinced we're getting nearer and
nearer to the light. So let us leave it now in the Lord's hands, and be
satisfied for him to guide us step by step, one at a time. I haven't a
do