ied on her
part; but I think that it was natural. It was not that she had any
desire for the jewel, or any curiosity even to see it. She would very
much have preferred that he should have brought nothing of the kind
to her. But she had a feminine reluctance that anything of value
should be destroyed without a purpose. So she took the shovel, and
poked among the ashes, and found the ring which her cousin had thrown
there. It was a valuable ring, bearing a ruby on it between two small
diamonds. Such at least, she became aware, had been its bearing; but
one of the side stones had been knocked out by the violence with
which the ring had been flung. She searched even for this, scorching
her face and eyes, but in vain. Then she made up her mind that the
diamond should be lost for ever, and that it should go out among the
cinders into the huge dust-heaps of the metropolis. Better that,
though it was distasteful to her feminine economy, than the other
alternative of setting the servants to search, and thereby telling
them something of what had been done.

When her search was over, she placed the ring on the mantelpiece; but
she knew that it would not do to leave it there,--so she folded it up
carefully in a new sheet of note-paper, and put it in the drawer of
her desk. After that she sat herself down at the table to think what
she would do; but her head was, in truth, racked with pain, and on
that occasion she could bring her thoughts to no conclusion.

CHAPTER XLVII

Mr Cheesacre's Disappointment

When Mrs Greenow was left alone in her lodgings, after the little
entertainment which she had given to her two lovers, she sat herself
down to think seriously over her affairs. There were three paths open
before her. She might take Mr Cheesacre, or she might take Captain
Bellfield--or she might decide that she would have nothing more
to say to either of them in the way of courting. They were very
persistent, no doubt; but she thought that she would know how to make
them understand her, if she should really make up her mind that she
would have neither one nor the other. She was going to leave Norwich
after Easter, and they knew that such was her purpose. Something had
been said of her returning to Yarmouth in the summer. She was a just
woman at heart, and justice required that each of them should know
what was to be his prospect if she did so return.

There was a good deal to be said on Mr Cheesacre's behalf.
Mahogany-f