E. V. Lucas

“ Stung to the quick by self-reproach, at the thought of having tarnished the good name of an innocent girl by false accusation, and of having exposed her to the unmerited sufferings of prison life, he instantly took a post-chaise and drove off to the jail in which she was confined, asked every particular about her from the governor, and found him enthusiastic in his admiration of her, and utterly incredulous of her guilt. 'She's the gentlest, sweetest-tempered creature we have ever had within these walls, and nothing shall make me believe she is a thief,' said he. ”

“ There were diamonds and pearls, and a large opal in which you saw deep down in its milky depths little glints of burning crimson and dancing green. But of all the jewels Priscilla liked best a turquoise ring, which her mother had ceased to wear. Priscilla would very much have liked this ring for her own; but her mother did not care for little girls to wear rings at all, except—but that is what I am going to tell you.
One day, soon after Priscilla was eleven, she had a bad toothache. It grew no better as the time went on, although she rubbed the tooth with medicine which her mother sent for ”

“ Why shouldn't our ring have fallen into a crack at the pastry-cook's in just the same way? You say it was a little bit loose, and Priscilla remembers taking off her glove in the shop. It's an old shop, isn't it?' he added. ”

“ Dear is like, because I am going to Maskelyne and Devant's to try and find him."
The very little servant, keeping the door nearly shut and speaking through the crack, was willing to sketch her master and mistress. Mr. Dear, she said, had white whiskers on each cheek and a pair of perfectly round spectacles. ("Like an owl," Priscilla thought.) And Miss Dear was wearing a hat with about half a pint of cherries on it, she should think. And they would be in the balcony.
So off went Priscilla and her father to Maskelyne and Devant's, and they had no difficulty in distinguishing Mr. ”

“ In addition to the ring of fortitude, Priscilla had been given a shilling to buy some cakes for tea from a little shop oft Regent Street that was famous in her family for a certain kind of scone. The dentist's man called a cab, and she and her nurse drove off very happily for the cakes and then all down Regent Street and through St. ”