A College Girl Part 15

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

A TREASURE INDEED.

Darsie was one of the last guests to arrive upon the final scene of the treasure hunt, and already the merry process of parcel opening had begun. The young girl who had captured three prizes was on her knees before a garden seat, laying them out in a row to be seen and admired of all. Gaily dressed women were running about appealing to their male friends for the loan of penknives to cut the encircling string, and the air was full of the sound of laughter and happy, triumphant voices.

"How lovely! How beautiful! Isn't it charming? _Just_ what I wanted!"

Darsie stood in the background, her hands clasping her bundle behind her back, so as to screen it from view until the right moment arrived for its production. The prize-winners were one and all in such a desperate hurry to examine their "finds" that she would not have long to wait, and meanwhile the scene was delightful to witness.

Every one looked gay, and happy and smiling; the many-coloured frocks of the women made charming flecks of colour against the sombre green of the old cedar, as they moved to and fro with dazzling, kaleidoscopic effect.

Darsie had never even imagined such a scene; it seemed to her more like fairyland than the dull work-a-day world.

She looked on, absorbed in delighted admiration, while one after another the coverings were torn from the dainty packages, and the brilliance of the scene was enhanced by the glitter of silver, and gla.s.s, and dainty patches of colour. It would take long, indeed, to write of the treasures which Mrs Percival had ama.s.sed in that day in town; it seemed to Darsie that nothing less than the contents of an entire shop window could have supplied so bewildering a variety. Bags, purses, satchels, brushes, manicure-cases, blotters, boxes, cigarette-cases, photograph frames, fans, brooches, bracelets, buckles, studs, tie-pins, waistcoat b.u.t.tons--wherever the eye turned there seemed something fresh and beautiful to admire.

After such an Aladdin's feast, would not her workman's bundle fall very flat? With a sudden access of humility Darsie was about to turn tail and put the poor man's dinner back in its hiding-place, when from across the lawn she met Ralph's eyes fixed upon her with an expression of patronising commiseration. He was pitying her, because she had come back empty-handed when sharper eyes had reaped so rich a harvest! That touch of superiority made short work of Darsie's hesitation. She would show that she was in no need of pity, that so far from being overpowered by failure, she remained jaunty and self-confident enough to turn her own disappointment into a joke for the amus.e.m.e.nt of others! With head thrown back she marched dramatically forward to the spot where Mrs Percival stood, the gracious mistress of the ceremonies, and held the bundle towards her in extended hands.

"Dear child, what have you there? A bundle--a workman's bundle! Where in the world have you discovered that?"

"In the trunk of an old tree, in the orchard near the wall."

"In the orchard? It belongs most likely to one of the men. His dinner, I should say, but what an odd place to hide it! So dirty!" She gave a dainty little shake of distaste. "I should put it away, dear, really!

It is covered with dust."

"It's a very _lumpy_ dinner," said Darsie, patting the surface of the bundle with curious fingers. "I thought perhaps it was a treasure done up in a different way from the others. It's heavy, too, far heavier than bread and cheese. I can open it, can't I? Just to make sure!"

"Oh, certainly, if you like--" a.s.sented Mrs Percival dubiously, and Darsie waited for no further permission, but promptly knelt down on the gra.s.s and set to work to untie the knotted ends of the checked handkerchief. The surrounding guests gathered around in a laughing circle, being in the gay and gratified frame of mind when any distraction is met halfway, and ensured of a favourable reception. What was this pretty girl about? What joke was hidden away in this commonplace-looking bundle?

The knot was strongly tied, but Darsie's fingers were strong also and in a minute's time it was undone, and the corners of the handkerchief dropped on the gra.s.s to reveal an inner bag of thick grey linen tied again round the mouth.

"It _is_ lumpy!" repeated Darsie again; then with a tug the string came loose, and lifting the bag in her hands, she rained its contents over the gra.s.s.

Was it a dream? Was it some fantasy of imagination--some wonderful effect of suns.h.i.+ne s.h.i.+ning upon hundreds and hundreds of dewdrops, and turning them into scintillating b.a.l.l.s of light, catching reflections from the flowers in yonder beds, and sending dancing rays of red, blue, and green across the gra.s.s? Red and blue and green the rainbow drops gleamed upon the ground, vivid and clear as the loveliest among the blossoms, but possessed of a radiance which no earth flower had inherited before.

Darsie sat back on her heels, her arms, falling slack by her sides, her wide eyes fixed on the ground in a surprise too complete for speech.

n.o.body spoke; the stupor in her own brain must surely have communicated itself to the guests crowding around, for while one might have counted fifty there was blank, utter silence upon the lawn. Then suddenly came a dramatic interruption; a cry, almost a scream, in a high, feminine voice, and a tall, fas.h.i.+onably dressed woman grasped wildly at a dangling chain of stones.

"My rubies! My rubies! My beautiful, beautiful rubies! Found again!

_Safe_! Oh, my rubies!" She burst into excited sobs, a gentleman came forward and led her gently aside, but her place was immediately taken by other women--white-faced, eager, trembling with anxiety.

"Oh! Oh-h--let me look! It's the jewels, the lost jewels-- Are my diamonds among them? Do you see a diamond necklace with an emerald clasp? Oh, _do_, do look!"

"My sapphires! They were taken, too. My sapphires!--"

They fell on their knees, regardless of their filmy draperies, and grasped at one s.h.i.+ning treasure after another. The delicate chains were knotted together; curved corners of gold had caught in other curved corners, so that in some cases half a dozen different ornaments presented the appearance of one big, bejewelled ball, and it was no easy matter to disentangle one from the other. The different owners, however, showed a marvellous quickness in recognising even a fragment of their lost treasures, and their exultation was somewhat undignified as they turned and twisted and coaxed the dainty threads, and finally clasped their lost treasures, safe and sound, and all the time Darsie sat back on her heels, with her golden hair hanging in heavy ma.s.ses over her shoulders, her eyes fixed upon this extraordinary scene, staring-- staring!

"Darsie, dear child, how can we thank you?" Mrs Percival's low voice trembled with earnestness; she had lifted a long string of pearls from the gra.s.s, and now held it between both hands, with a transparent pleasure it was true, but without any of the hysteric excitement shown by her guests.

"Do you realise all that your workman's bundle contained, or the weight you have taken off our minds? It was the thief's bundle, the bundle of jewels which he stole from the house on the night of the Hunt Ball, which we have tried so hard to recover! To think--to think that all this time they have been hidden close at hand!"

"Hidden with a purpose, too! Look at this, Evelyn!" interrupted Mr Percival, holding out a corner of the checked handkerchief towards his wife, with a stern look on his handsome face--

"'B.W.' That's Wilson's property! He was a worse offender than we thought."

"Wilson? That was the young gamekeeper, wasn't it?" asked another man-- the husband of the lady who was still crooning over her recovered diamonds. "You thought he had been led away by smart London thieves, but this seems as if he had taken a leading part. Looks, too, as if there may have been only himself and Forbes in the affair!"

"Just so! No wonder Wilson refused to give the names of his colleagues.

When the chase grew too hot he hid the spoils in this tree--evidently an old hiding-place--before climbing the wall. If he had made clear away that night we should never have suspected his share in the theft.

He would have turned up as usual next morning, and expressed great surprise at the news. As it is he and Forbes are no doubt patiently waiting until their sentences are out, expecting to slip back some dark night and secure their prey. From such point of view it is a small business to serve a few months when there's a fortune waiting at the end! Well, this takes ten years off my back. I can't tell you how the whole business has preyed on our minds. My dear fellow, I am so thankful that your diamonds have turned up!"

"My dear fellow, it was fifteen times worse for you than for us! A most uncomfortable position; I congratulate you a hundred times. Just in the nick of time, too. In a month or so there would have been no bundle to discover."

A general gasp at once of dismay and relief pa.s.sed round the little inner circle of those most nearly interested in the recovered treasures, and the first excitement of recovery having pa.s.sed, every one seemed bent on lavis.h.i.+ng thanks and praises upon the girl through whom the happy discovery had come about.

"Who is she?"

"What is her name?"

"Where does she come from?" The questions buzzed on every side, and the answer, "Lady Hayes's grand-niece," served only to enhance existing attractions. Darsie found herself kissed, patted, embraced, called by a dozen caressing names by half a dozen fine ladies in turn, during which process every eye on the lawn was turned upon her blus.h.i.+ng face.

Through a gap in the crowd she could see Lady Hayes holding as it were a secondary court, being thanked effusively for possessing a grand-niece with a faculty for recovering jewels, and bowing acknowledgments with a bright patch of colour on either cheekbone. The position was so strange and bewildering that even yet it seemed more like a dream than reality; that sudden rain of jewels descending from the linen bag was the sort of thing one might expect in an Arabian night adventure rather than in the midst of a decorous English garden-party! It must surely be in imagination that she, Darsie Garnett, has been hailed as a good fairy to all these fas.h.i.+onably dressed men and women!

The almost hysteric effusion of the women who kissed and gushed around her must surely have something infectious in its nature, since she herself was beginning to feel an insane inclination to burst into tears or laughter, it was immaterial which of the two it should be. Darsie turned a quick look around, searching for a way of escape, and at that moment Noreen's hand pressed on her arm, and she found herself being led gently towards the house.

"Poor old Darsie, then! She looks quite dazed!" said Noreen's voice.

"No wonder, after all that fuss. You've been kissed to pieces, poor dear, and howled over, too. Silly things! howling when things are lost, and howling again when they are found! I've no patience with them; but, oh, my dear, I _do_ bless you for what you've done! You've no idea how relieved we shall be. It was such a _stigma_ to have your guests robbed under your own roof, and by one of your own men, too. Mother has never been the same since--worried herself into nerves, and fancied every one blamed her, and thought she'd been careless. You can't think _how_ happy she'll be writing to the people who aren't here to-day telling them that their things are found. She'll feel a new creature."

"I'm so glad. She's a dear. Wasn't she sweet and dignified among them all? Oh, dear! I'm all churned up. I thought as I couldn't find a treasure I'd have a little joke on my own account, and after all I found the biggest treasure of all, Noreen! how much money were those things worth?"

"Oh, my dear, don't ask me! Mother's pearls alone are worth three thousand, and that's nothing to the rest. Mrs Ferriers' rubies are the most valuable, I believe. Altogether it must be a fortune--to say nothing of the a.s.sociations. Isn't it strange to think of? An hour ago you were a stranger whom scarcely any one knew even by sight, and now in a flash you have become a celebrity, a heroine--the pet of the county!"

"Am I? Really? It sounds agreeable. I'll write to-night and tell Vie Vernon, and sign myself 'The Pet of the County.' She _will_ be impressed. Pity it wasn't my own county, where it would be of more use.

I shall probably never see these good people again."

"Fiddle!" cried Noreen derisively. "No chance of that. Whether you like it or no, my dear, this day has settled your fate. You can never be a mere acquaintance any more. You've done us a service which will bind us together as long as we live. Henceforth a bit of you belongs to us, and we'll see that we get it!"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

A DREAM FULFILLED.

The next week brought with it a succession of bewildering excitements.

From morn till night, as it seemed, the bell rang, and visitors were ushered in to congratulate Lady Hayes and her niece on the happy episode of the jewel-finding, and to repeat _ad infinitum_ the same questions, e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns, and remarks. People who had no personal interest in the theft seemed, strangely enough, quite as excited and curious as those who had; and even when their curiosity was satisfied there still remained the servants in the house, the tradesmen in the village, the very children in the roads, who seemed one and all possessed with a thirst to hear the romantic story from the lips of the heroine herself.

Then letters from relations and friends! However minutely one might retail every incident, there still seemed an endless number of details which remained to be told to people who could not be satisfied without knowing in each case what _he_ said, how _she_ looked, how _you_ yourself felt and behaved! The first three days were spent in talk; on the fourth began a second and still more exciting stage. The bell rang, a small, daintily tied parcel was handed in for Miss Garnett, which being unwrapped revealed a red velvet jeweller's box, and within that a small heart-shaped pendant, slung on a gold chain, and composed of one large and several small rubies, set transparently, so as to show to advantage their glowing rosy light. An accompanying card bore the inscription, "A small expression of grat.i.tude from Mrs Eustace Ferriers"; but even this proof was hardly sufficient to convince Darsie that such splendour was really for her own possession.

"Aunt Maria! Can she _mean_ it? Is it really to keep?"