L. T. Meade

“ Are the Conditions Impossible? “Now, my dear young lady,” said Mr Gray; “now, my dear, good Miss Rosamund, let me ask you if you are doing right in flinging the gifts of Providence from you?”
“I am doing perfectly right,” I retorted with spirit.
“Pardon me, please do pardon me; youth is so impulsive and hot-headed; youth is so assertive, so positive, it must be guided by age—it simply must. Now, Miss Rosamund, will you sit down in this easy-chair? Will you sit perfectly still, and allow me to speak for three or four minutes?” ”

“ My father said:
“Rosamund, it is out of my power to gratify all your restless whims; you are scarcely at home when you are off again. You will turn into one of those gadding women, those busy-bodies who are a disgrace to their sex. Mary,” turning to my mother, “I wonder you allow it.”
“Could not you stay at home to-day, Rose, dear?” she asked, gently, looking at me with a sweet piteous sort of smile.
“I’ll stay at home to-morrow, mother darling,” I answered. “I am ever so sorry to leave you to-day, but it is absolutely necessary for me to go to town.” ”

“ Your ambition will undo you; your pride will have a fall.”
“Very well, Cousin Geoffrey, let it. I would rather ride my high-horse for a day, and have a fall in the evening, than never mount it at all.”
“Oh, folly, child, stuff and folly! There, the kettle boils. No, you need not help me, I don’t want young misses with grand ideas like you to touch my china. Rosamund, do you know—that I am looking out for an heir, or an heiress, to inherit my riches?”
“All right, Cousin Geoffrey, only pray don’t choose me!”
“You, you saucy chit! I want some one who’s contented, who won’t squander my gold. ”

“ If Cousin Geoffrey had not made his queer will, I should have pressed my suit. As it is, I cannot.
“What I want to tell you now, however, is this, that you are absolutely free to choose your own time to marry me. There is to be no hurry, and no constraint is to be put upon you. I understand from Gray that you have yielded to the conditions of our cousin’s will for your mother’s sake. Gray is a right good fellow, and he appreciates your spirit of self-sacrifice. He has made it possible for us two to delay our marriage, and yet for your mother and your people not to suffer.” ”

“ I continued. “Mother, you must get better—you must live, you must!”
“It is as God wills, my darling.”
“That is just it, mother. He would not have made us rich if He did not will that you are to live. Poverty and care were killing you. Now they have folded their wings, and gone away. You will always be rich in the future; you will always have the most nourishing food, the softest care, the tenderest love. Don’t you think you can nestle down into the love and the care, mother? Don’t you think you can try?”
“I do try, Rose. But poverty—poverty and trouble have left their mark. ”

“ Then the pink glow deepened on her cheeks. She held out her hands to us both.
“Come,” I said to my cousin. He followed me, and my mother laid her little hand in his.
“Mother,” I said, “this is my cousin, Tom Valentine; we are going to marry each other.”
“My dear Rose, my child!”
“There is no hurry,” murmured Tom.
“There is every hurry,” I repeated; “we—we love each other.”
“Rosamund!” interrupted my cousin.
“We love each other,” I continued, steadily, “as much as any two people could. There is no reason why we should delay our marriage.” ”

“ Lady Ursula was alone in the drawing-room when I entered.
“How do you do, Rosamund?” she said. “You did not expect me to find you out here: but of course Rupert and Tom told me all about you. Sit down there, where I can take a good look at you. Rosamund, what a remarkably wicked young woman you are.”
“I don’t understand you, Lady Ursula.”
“Please call me Ursula. We shall be cousins when I am Rupert Valentine’s wife. Do you know, Rosamund, that I have taken an immense fancy to you!”
“What! you have taken a fancy to a wicked young woman!” ”

“ After a brief pause he came up and took my hand in his.
“You are a brave girl, Rosamund Lindley,” he said. “You are like your mother, but you have more spirit than she ever had. You are very young—very, very young, or you would not offer an old man like me—an old miser, a person whose own heart is withered—such a gift as love. What can a withered heart want with love? You are very young, Rosamund, so I forgive your rash words. I will talk to you, however. Sit near me. You may open that fresh heart to me if you feel inclined.”
Cousin Geoffrey and I talked together for over an hour. ”

“ Mr Gray spoke in a very angry tone. Strange as it may seem, I quite enjoyed it. At that moment it was positively nice to be scolded.
“I will listen to you,” I said, in a weak voice.
“You are very selfish,” pursued Mr Gray. “Providence intends you to be wealthy, and to help all your relatives. Providence means you to be a blessing and assistance to your family. You prefer to be a hindrance, a clog, a kill-joy, a spoil-all. Your mother is delicate, your father poor, your brothers without any opening in life. You can remove the thorns out of all their paths. ”

“ I don’t think it was a will; and the only thing given away was my ruby ring.”
“Just like Geoffrey,” exclaimed Captain Valentine. “Then I presume all the wealth of his miserly old life went to endow a hospital.”
“Even though you are a relation, you must not abuse Cousin Geoffrey,” I said. “His wealth has not gone to endow any hospital, but is waiting.”
“Waiting—for whom?”
“For the heir.”
Lady Ursula suddenly broke in. “The longer I know you, Rosamund,” she said, “the more mysterious you grow. Who in the world is the heir? Why is not the wealth divided? ”

“ And of all things, what I most despise is the wild talk of the aspirant. Rosamund, you are a good girl, a plucky honest girl, but you will never be an artist. Tut, tut! There have not been more than a dozen real artists in the world, and is it likely that you will be the thirteenth? Go and darn your stockings quietly at home, Rosamund, and forget this silly little dream.”
I stamped my foot.
“If there have hitherto been only twelve artists I will make the thirteenth,” I said. “There! I am not afraid. I go and darn stockings! No, I won’t, not while you are alive, Cousin Geoffrey.” ”

“ Now, little ring, you shall open your heart and show me the very depths of your secret life. First, however, I shall make an illumination in your honour.” I opened my trunk; took out my bits of candles and lighted them; turned the key in the lock of my door, and sat down again by the dressing-table. It did not take me long to discover the slight nick by the serpent’s eye. I pressed my finger lightly on the spring, and to my joy the central splendid ruby revolved aside on its hidden hinge, and the serpents with their brilliant flashing eyes moved apart like doors. ”

“ Cousin Geoffrey’s letter ran as follows:—
“My dear Gray:
“The more I think over our interview to-day the better pleased I am at the arrangement we have arrived at. You know how particular I am about my wills. I regard them from a serious and even an artistic point of view. I look upon a will as the crowning stone of a man’s life, a crown to be placed on the shrine of his memory, a monument to hand down his name to the ages. My last will pleases me much. It is finished in all its details. It is, I may venture to say, truly original. ”

“ I was to marry the heir of all the other half of the wealth and the beauty. The other half of Cousin Geoffrey’s riches was left to my almost unknown cousin, Tom Valentine. He was to possess his half if he married me. I was to take possession of my half on the day I became his wife.
“I like you, Rosamund Lindley,” Cousin Geoffrey had said in his letter; “you are no beggar, and no fawner. You are a simple-minded, honest, downright English girl. You have courage, too, and I always respect courage. You have come to me to help you with your art. ”

“ She took my hand.
“Come and sit by me on the sofa, dear Rosamund. You know why I want this ruby ring; Captain Valentine knows nothing of the terrible loss I have sustained. If he hears of it—if he knows that his ring is gone, he will break off his engagement.”
“Then I have only one thing to say, Lady Ursula,” I replied; “if that is the nature of the man you are about to marry, you had better find it out before marriage than afterwards. Do you think I would marry a man who loved a trinket more than me? No! I am a poor girl, but I should be too proud for that. ”

“ The central ruby revolved out of its place, the serpents’ heads opened wide their doors, and the little chamber inside the ring was once more visible.
“Raise that white paper,” I said; “there is writing under it.”
“Rosamund, you shake all over,” said Lady Ursula.
I flashed an impatient glance at her.
“Can you wonder?” I said. “Yes, perhaps you can. It is impossible for you to understand. If you wanted money as badly as I do, and saw the bare possibility of getting it, you too would shake—you would find it impossible to control your emotion.”
Again Tom Valentine’s eyes met mine. ”

“ I replied. “Mothers worthy of the name would never do such a thing,” she replied. “Why, Rosamund, a mother—I say it in all reverence—stands something in the place of God. When we are truly repentant we never feel nearer to God, and so a boy is never truly nearer to his mother than when he has done something wrong, and is sorry for it. Come up-stairs with me at once, I must help you to make your preparations. You have not an hour to lose in going to Jack’s Hetty.” My mother was so excited, so enthusiastic, that she would scarcely give me breathing-time to put my things together. ”

“ Well, Rosamund, what do you think of your cousin Tom Valentine?”
“I scarcely know that I think of him at all,” I replied.
“What! Have you not discovered that he is a traveller—a man who has met with remarkable adventures; a man of the world, a gentleman, a man of culture; also, and above all, an Englishman, with a true and honest heart?”
“I have had no time to find out these many excellent qualities,” I answered back.
“You will soon see them,” responded Mr Gray. “Your eyes will be opened. You will perceive what I mean; all, all that I mean. So you have already met Tom Valentine ”

“ I cannot part with the ruby ring. It was left to me by an old cousin of mine, and when I received it I was particularly requested never to part with it. I am sorry for you, Lady Ursula, but I must ask you to give me my ring, and let me go.”
Lady Ursula put her hands behind her.
“You are a cruel, selfish girl,” she said angrily.
“No, Lady Ursula, I am not cruel. The world, which has been so gentle to you, has blown many hard rough winds on my face, but they have never made me cruel. And as to being selfish, why should I part with my one ewe-lamb?” ”

“ My mother stepped into the hall.
“You are looking very ill indeed,” she exclaimed.
Jack growled in that peculiarly ungracious way which always drove me wild when it was addressed to our mother.
“I am not ill,” he said. “What a fuss women make! I have just got a beastly headache.”
“Come into the drawing-room, and have a cup of tea, my dear boy.”
“I could not sit up, thank you, mother. I’ll go to my room, and see what a stretch on the bed and a nap will do for me. If Rosamund likes to be good-natured, she can bring me up some tea in half an hour.” ”

“ The last glimpse I got of Hetty, she was sitting very close to her husband, and looking into his face. That poor young face of his looked worn and anxious enough, but Hetty knew nothing of the anxiety, and nothing of Jack’s fall from the paths of honour;—to her he was a prince—the first of men.
I sighed as I left the railway station. “Poor Jack!” I said to myself, “the path that lies before him will not be too easy to climb. Fancy having a little wife like Hetty to look after and support, and no means whatever to earn money for either of them. ”

“ Well, this is a dear little ring, and I am glad Cousin Geoffrey gave it to me. How small it is—it won’t go on my tiniest finger. I wonder what kind of woman wore it last. It is of heavy make to be a woman’s ring. How solid the gold is, and how quaintly carved. I see there is the device of a serpent worked very richly into the gold at each side, and the smaller ruby forms the eye. Really, this looks like witchery, a serpent with a fiery eye. Two serpents, rather, for each is complete in itself. How much to get into so little. No wonder the ring is heavy. ”

“ I arrived at Ivy Lodge in time for an afternoon cup of tea with my mother. I was very hungry, for I had not ventured on the extravagance of lunch in town, and while I ate, I regaled her with the account of my morning’s adventures. She was by no means astonished when she heard that the old Jew dealer had offered me one hundred and fifty pounds for the ring.
“It is worth a good deal more than that,” she said. “I know the centre ruby has been priced at a very high figure by more than one connoisseur. Nevertheless, you are not going to sell the ring, are you, Rosamund?” ”

“ This I was sure of, for Mr Gray’s eyes sparkled as if he lived well and cheerily, and the pleasant sunshine of hospitality shone all over his expressive features.
I was going to a gay house then—a “company” house.
I ran down-stairs early the next morning and told my mother of my invitation, and of my acceptance of it.
She seemed a little surprised, then, after a pause, she said she was pleased.
“Go, and have a good time, Rosamund,” she said; “it is quite right that girls should enjoy themselves; but oh! my love,” an anxious shadow coming across her face, “what have you got to wear?” ”

“ My mother wants money, peace, rest.”
“Exactly, Rosamund. Penury and a hard life are killing your mother. Go up-stairs. Don’t talk any more humbug. Get your mother what she wants. Gray, the lawyer, has been here this morning.”
“Oh,” I said, “and he has told you?”
“He has told me that you can be rich if you please. He has told me also the source from which the wealth can come. You think that I will shrink from that source. I shrink from nothing that will save your mother. Gray thinks it highly probable that you will act like a weak idiot.” ”

“ Dr Johnson and Dr Keith, from London, are both up-stairs. They will tell you what you have to do. Go to them; obey their directions. There is not a moment to be lost.”
My father’s trembling hand still held my shoulder; he emphasised his words with cruel pinches. I wrenched myself away with a sudden effort.
“You hurt me when you hold me like that,” I said.
“Who cares whether I hurt you or not, child? it’s your mother’s life that hangs in the balance. What matter about you—what are you? Go up-stairs to the doctors. Listen to their directions and obey them.” ”

“ What if we never needed to economise more! What if—? My brain seemed to reel; I almost shook myself in my anger. “How silly you are, Rosamund Lindley!” I said under my breath. “What if you have got the secret which will lead to the discovery of Cousin Geoffrey’s will? is it likely that that will can affect you? Oh, what a conceited, foolish girl you are!” ”