Tales from Many Sources | Page 3

had played whist with the parson, and the younger
sister (perhaps because of the brooch) had been favoured with a good
deal of conversation with the lawyer. It was an honour, because the
lawyer bore the reputation of an esprit fort, and was supposed to have,
as a rule, a contempt for feminine intellects, which good manners led
him to veil under an almost officious politeness in society. But honours

are apt to be uneasy blessings, and this one was at least as harassing as
gratifying. For a somewhat monotonous vein of sarcasm, a painful
power of producing puns, and a dexterity in suggesting doubts of
everything, were the main foundation of his intellectual reputation, and
Miss Kitty found them hard to cope with. And it was a warm evening.
But women have much courage, especially to defend a friend or a faith,
and the less Miss Kitty found herself prepared for the conflict the
harder she esteemed it her duty to fight. She fought for Church and
State, for parsons and poor people, for the sincerity of her friends, the
virtues of the Royal Family, the merit of Dr. Drugson's prescriptions,
and for her favourite theory that there is some good in everyone and
some happiness to be found every where.
She rubbed nervously at the diamond brooch with her thin little
mittened hands. She talked very fast; and if the lawyer were guilty of
feeling any ungallant indifference to her observations, she did not so
much as hear his, and her cheeks became so flushed that Mrs. Dunmaw
crossed the room in her China crape shawl and said, "My dear Miss
Kitty, I'm sure you feel the heat very much. Do take my fan, which is
larger than yours."
But Miss Kitty was saved a reply, for at this moment Miss Betty turned
on the sofa, and said, "Dear Kitty, will you kindly see if the servant--"
And the parson closed the volume of "Friendship's Offering" which lay
before him, and advanced towards Mrs. Dunmaw and took leave in his
own dignified way.
Miss Kitty was so much flustered that she had not even presence of
mind to look for the servant, who had never been ordered to come, but
the parson relieved her by saying in his round, deep voice, "I hope you
will not refuse me the honour of seeing you home, since our roads
happen to lie together," And she was glad to get into the fresh air, and
beyond the doubtful compliments of the lawyer's nasal suavity--"You
have been very severe upon me to-night, Miss Kitty. I'm sure I had no
notion I should find so powerful an antagonist," etc.

MIDSUMMER EVE.--A LOST DIAMOND.
It was Midsummer Eve. The long light of the North was pale and clear,
and the western sky shone luminous through the fir-wood that bordered
the road. Under such dim lights colours deepen, and the great bushes of
broom, that were each one mass of golden blossom, blazed like fairy
watch-fires up the lane.
Miss Kitty leaned on the left arm of the parson and Miss Betty on his
right. She chatted gaily, which left her younger sister at leisure to think
of all the convincing things she had not remembered to say to the
lawyer, as the evening breeze cooled her cheeks.
"A grand prospect for the crops, sir," said Miss petty; "I never saw the
broom so beautiful." But as he leaned forward to look at the yellow
blaze which foretells good luck to farmers, as it shone in the hedge on
the left-hand side of the road, she caught sight of the brooch in Miss
Kitty's lace shawl. Through a gap in the wood the light from the
western sky danced among the diamonds. But where one of the
precious stones should have been there was a little black hole.
"Sister, you've lost a stone out of your brooch!" screamed Miss Betty.
The little ladies were well-trained, and even in that moment of despair
Miss Betty would not hint that her sister's ornaments were not her sole
property.
When Miss Kitty burst into tears the parson was a little astonished as
well as distressed. Men are apt to be so, not perhaps because women
cry on such very small accounts, as because the full reason does not
always transpire. Tears are often the climax of nervous exhaustion and
this is commonly the result of more causes than one. Ostensibly Miss
Kitty was "upset" by the loss of the diamond, but she also wept away a
good deal of the vexation of her unequal conflict with the sarcastic
lawyer, and of all this the parson knew nothing.
Miss Betty knew nothing of that, but she knew enough of things in

general to feel sure that the diamond was not all the