Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/106

104 Welbeck Street; Lady Anne was at once, or rather alternately, enraged, ashamed, and relieved; she could not fail to be angry that she had lost a prize, when it was literally in her grasp; nor could she hope to look her own innocent child in the face, however darkly she might frown, without shrinking from the mode of the transaction, which she considered the only objectionable part of the affair; that she had not actually parted with an article that a powerful and respectable family would have raised every possible means for regaining, and would be eventually brought home to her she could not doubt, since the Count would unquestionably have told the literal truth, if both her life and his own had depended upon it. At all events, she had not strength to punish tonight; therefore, on returning Helen her key, she said, "You may both go to bed; to-morrow I shall have a good deal to say to Miss Georgiana, as she probably expects." "Oh! give me your key—quick, quick, dear Helen, that I may see if it will open my box." It did so, and all within was found quite comme il faut; there was even a ring within the precious letter; it appeared positive witchcraft, but the letter was unfolded with an eager but trembling hand, and she beheld a ring, with a stone beneath, in which a small skull and cross-bones