by L. T. Meade
bran pie!" she said, with a nervous little laugh. "Butyes--here is a prize!" Out came something, discoloured and tarnished,but a gold bracelet; then something else, which, as the dust was shakenoff and the light fell on it, flashed and dazzled--a diamond star,rings, brooches, everything. The lost jewels were found at last!
"Begging your pardon, gentlemen," said Harry Whittaker, "I can'tunderstand now how they came to be hidden so completely."
"It is clear enough at last," said Sir Philip.
"Lady Carleton, as she wishes every one fully to know, hid the box inwhich she had put the jewels among the ferns on the rockery. Lennox,who had left the place the week before, came back on the sly to see hissweetheart, and, according to his statement to you, stole the jewels,threw the box into the pond, and put the jewels for security into thatgreat hole, just within a man's reach. You explained why he never cameback for them, and if he had I don't see how he would have got them out,for of course they slipped through the smaller hole in the bottom of thevisible hollow, of which he was not aware. Wyn Warren stopped that holeup to make a nesting-place for the squirrels, little thinking what hewas burying away. He did his work so cleverly that the other day, whenhis father inspected this great shallow hole, he never thought of thecave beneath.
"And now this great discovery has been made by so strange a set ofaccidents that they must be called Providential: the losing of theletter, my little girl picking it up and this young woman finding it,which, I suppose, led to her knowing of the search for the jewels; Wyn'sgood-nature in getting Lily the honeysuckle; your offer of thewild-flower prize--all these trifles have worked in to clear up a mostunhappy perplexity. And, Mr Henry Whittaker, I beg to congratulateyou."
"And I," said Mr Cunningham, holding out his hand to Harry, "toapologise for having misjudged you."
Harry touched his hat first and then took the extended hand.
"Thank you, sir," he said. "It's very handsome of you to say so; but,under the circumstances, I should certainly have suspected myself."
"You will all come in to Ravenshurst and get some supper, and look atthe jewels in a better light?" said Sir Philip.
"Thank you," said Alwyn, "but my brother will want me, and Whittaker andI would like to walk back together, if you don't mind driving homealone, father."
"As you will," said Mr Cunningham; then, in a lower tone, "I am glad wehad it out to-day, Alwyn. That was poor Edgar's doing; he will be gladof this."
So the group, so strangely gathered together, dispersed. Harry andAlwyn walked away through the wood together. Theirs had been a strangecomradeship, first for evil and then for good, in bad fortune and goodfortune. It was hardly likely that they could be as close companions inthe future as they had been in the past, but there would always be a tiebetween them that nothing could loosen.
And when Lady Carleton, taking Florence by the hand, led her into herown room, and kneeling down with her gave thanks that the undoing of herchildish folly had come through the sister of the man who had been mostinjured by it, and that all doubt and mystery were over, Florence neverthought of being elated at her discovery; she felt grateful and quiet,and went to bed thinking chiefly of the hearty kiss with which Harry hadparted from her, and his words: "I'm heartily grateful to you, Florence.You've been the means of doing me a real good turn." Even while, asshe thought how she would try and deserve my lady's kind words, and beworth the friendly treatment she had had from her, the girlish thoughtpressed in between:
"Oh, my! what _would_ Carrie and Ada think if they'd have known I'd hadthe finding of a real diamond necklace!"
The flower show next day in a tent in the park was an occasion never tobe forgotten, for there, in the centre of the tent, above Mr Elton'sbest orchids, and the geraniums from Sir Philip's garden, under a glasscase, and with Mr Warren on guard beside them, lay the lost jewels ofRavenshurst, still tarnished and dusty, with the bits of touchwoodclinging to them still, and testifying to the prison from which theirbrightness had been released, that all the world might know that theywere found at last.
And there all the country round came to look at them; Mr Cunningham,with his eldest son, looking more bright and genial than he had everbeen seen before, telling the story to Mr and Mrs Murray. And therewere Harry Whittaker and his father, to whom he had sent an urgenttelegram, and Florence walking round with them, an object ofastonishment to her Aunt Stroud and to Mattie, who had come also to seethe wonderful jewels. And there were Geraldine and her governess--Geraldine calling Florence eagerly to look at the wild-flower basketssent by "our class." And at last in the afternoon, to the intense joyof Wyn Warren, came Mr Edgar himself. How carefully Wyn led the ponyacross the smooth turf and round the tent, where every one made way, andEdgar lay back quite still, not nodding and half raising himself andlooking about, as had been his wont, but resting on his pillows, withonly his bright eyes watching everything! He stopped in the middle ofthe tent, and Alwyn lifted down the jewels and showed them to him, oneby one; and Harry, who had never yet seen him, came up to shake handswith him, and Edgar smiled at him and said in his old lively way:
"Found at last, you see!" and then, "My brother talks to me often aboutyou."
Harry could hardly speak, the white face and bright eyes quite overcamehim.
"I want to see the wild flowers," said Edgar, and the variouscollections were shown to him, with Wyn's with the words "First Prize"on it.
"I'm so fond of wild flowers, you know," he said. "I want all thechildren who collected them to have a shilling from me, besides theirprizes. Wyn shall give them away."
So the dozen or so of children who had competed were called up andnamed, and Alwyn gave Wyn the shillings to distribute as they bowed andcurtsied and smiled at Mr Edgar.
Then Alwyn said that that was enough and he must come home, and Wyn ledthe pony back across the turf, while Alwyn walked beside it, looking sadand anxious, bright as the day should have been for him.
Before he was lifted out of the chair, Edgar called Wyn up to him andtook his little red fist in his long white fingers.
"I've liked my drive very much," he said. "Take care of old Dobbles."
Wyn could not speak a word, and when Edgar had been carried away, and hehad led the pony safely out of sight, he suddenly flung his arms roundDobbles' neck and burst into a passion of tears; for he knew, as well asif any one had told him, that all their long pleasant days were over,and that he would never take Mr Edgar out again. He could not go backto the tent, to the tea that was to come, and the merry-making. He saton the straw in Dobbles' stable and cried as if his heart would break.
Here he was discovered by Alwyn, who had come to fulfil his father'swish, by looking at the horses. Wyn jumped up in a hurry and feigned tobe absorbed in the contents of Dobbles' manger. Alwyn, although he sawpretty well what was amiss, did not want to face the boy's grief justthen, so he only patted Dobbles, and said that Mr Edgar was restingcomfortably and did not seem overtired, and that Wyn had better go andplay cricket and come up to-morrow to tell him how many runs he hadmade.
The half-realised fears of youth are easily soothed by cheerful wordsfrom an elder. Wyn, partly perhaps from Edgar's influence andtheoretical instructions, was an excellent cricketer for his age andstation, and now went off quite cheerfully to share in the game; and asthe boys, and indeed all the village, were much fuller of the discoveryof the jewels than of Mr Edgar or of anything else, the flower show andfete concluded joyously.
Florence remained at the Lodge that night to see her relations, and asshe walked back with Harry from the station after seeing them off by thelast train for Rapley, he had a long talk with her, and told her, beingan outspoken person, a good deal about his own history, and of hisfeelings when he had contemplated his returning.
"I'd never have got over it, Florrie," he said, "if father hadn't beenthere to make it up."
He did not lecture Florrie nor allude to any of her misdemeanours, butsomehow the tone he took influenced her and made her feel that the
results of sauciness and defiance were not matters to be laughed at.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
WILD FLOWERS.
Wyn saw Mr Edgar many times after the day of the flower show, though henever took him out again with Dobbles. The weather continued fine andbright, and Edgar, in every interval of pain and faintness, insisted ongetting on to the terrace or near the window, saying that the feeling ofthe air and the sight of the sky and the trees kept the life in him.
Then Wyn would bring him a flower or two or tell him some anecdote abouthis pets, and it was very seldom that Edgar did not smile and brightenat these reminders of his old solaces.
It seemed as if with the jewels some spirit of kindliness and