'
Margaret, not a little surprised, did as she was desired. The abbess
gazed on the case for some moments in silence, and Margaret thought
she saw a tear glisten in her eye as she pressed the box to her lips,
and kissed it tenderly and reverentially.
'I have sworn,' she said, 'never to part with it; yet what can I do?
It must be so: it is the will of God.' And with a trembling hand, as
if about to commit sacrilege, she opened the case, and drew from it a
ruby of great brilliancy and beauty. 'You see this jewel?' she said.
'Margaret, it is the glory of my ancient house; it is the last gem in
my coronet, and more precious in my eyes than anything in the world.
My grand-uncle, the noblest of men, the Archbishop of Besancon,
brought it from the East; and when, in guerdon for some-family
service, Louis XIV. founded the Abbey of Vatteville, and made my
grand-aunt the first abbess of the order, he himself adorned her cross
with it. You now know the value of the jewel to me; and though I
cannot tell its marketable value, still, notwithstanding the pressure
of the times, I cannot but think it must bring sufficient to secure
us, for some time at least, from want.
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