voice she
enquired if he would purchase the ring, he was satisfied that he was
correct in his former conjecture, that she belonged to a family of
former wealth and respectability. But young as she was there was a
certain reserve and dignity in her manner, which forbade any questions
on his part. The man had for many years carried on a lucrative business
in his line, and he was now wealthy; and knowing that he could afford to
wait till the ring should find a purchaser he had no fears of losing
money on so valuable an article; and, as is not often the case in such
transactions, he paid her a fair price for the ring, although less than
its real value. Ellen returned, much elated by her success; the money
she had received for the ring seemed to them in their present
circumstances a small fortune. "Little did once I think" said the widow,
as she carefully counted the bank-notes, "that a few paltry pounds would
ever seem of so much value to me; but perhaps it is well that we should
sometimes experience the want of money, that we may learn how to make a
proper use of it, and be more helpful to those less favoured than
ourselves." The money they obtained more than sufficed for their
support, till Mrs. Harris so far recovered, as to allow them again to
resume their employment. They now had no difficulty in obtaining work,
and although obliged to toil early and late, they became cheerful and
contented; although they could not but feel the change in their
circumstances, and often contrast the happy past, with their present lot
of labor and toil.

The shopkeeper burnished up the setting of the diamonds and placed the
ring among many others in the show-case upon his counter. But so
expensive an ornament as this does not always find a ready purchaser,
and for some months it remained unsold. One afternoon a gentleman
entered the shop to make some trifling purchase, and, as the shopkeeper
happened to be engaged with a customer, he remained standing at the
counter, till he should be at leisure, and his eye wandered carelessly
over the articles in the show-case. Suddenly he started, changed
countenance, and when the shopkeeper came forward to attend to him he
said in a voice of suppressed eagerness, "will you allow me to examine
that ring," pointing as he spoke to the diamond ring sold by Ellen
Harris. "Certainly Sir, certainly," said the obliging shop-keeper, who,
hoping that the ring had at last found a purchaser, immediately placed
i