The lady sat down on the sofa beside Frank, and told him the story which
follows:--

"I have two children," she said, "a daughter and a son. The son has
recently graduated from college, and is now travelling in Europe. My
daughter is now twenty-six years of age. She was beautiful, and our
social position was such that my husband, who is a proud man,
confidently anticipated that she would make a brilliant match. But at
the age of nineteen Ellen fell in love with a clerk in my husband's
employ. He was a young man of good appearance and character, and nothing
could be said against him except that he was poor. This, however, was
more than enough in Mr. Graham's eyes. When Lawrence Brent asked for the
hand of our daughter, my husband drove him from the house with insult,
and immediately discharged him from his employ. Ellen was high-spirited,
and resented this treatment of the man she loved. He soon obtained a
place quite as good as the one he had lost, and one day Ellen left the
house and married him. She wrote to us, excusing her action, and I would
gladly have forgiven her; but her father was obdurate. He forbade my
mentioning her name to him, and from that day to this he has never
referred to her.

"I am now coming to the business in which you are to help me. For years
my son-in-law was able to support his wife comfortably, and also the two
children which in time came to them. But, a year since, he became sick,
and his sickness lasted till he had spent all his savings. Now he and
his poor family are living in wretched lodgings, and are in need of the
common necessaries of life. It is for them I intend the money which I
can secure upon this ring."

Frank could not listen without having his sympathies aroused.

"I shall be still more glad to help you," he said, "now that I know how
the money is to be used."

"Thank you," said the lady. "You are a good boy, and I see that I can
trust you implicitly."

She handed Frank the box, enjoining upon him to be careful not to lose
it.

"It is so small that it might easily slip from your pocket," she said.

"I shall take the best care of it," said Frank. "Where would you advise
me to go first?"

"I hardly know. If I wished to sell it I would carry it to Tiffany; but
it was purchased there, and it might in that case come to my husband's
ears. There is a pawnbroker, named Simpson, who, I hear, is one of the
best of his class. You may go there first."

"How much shall I s