Only One Love, or Who Was the Heir Part 37

They entered and Mrs. Davenant asked to see some ladies' watches, selected one and a handsome albert, and, with a smile, arranged them at Una's waist, in which, to her equal amazement, she found a pocket already provided.

Pale with emotion, she could not utter a word, and to hide the tears that sprang into her eyes, turned aside to look at a case containing a magnificent set of brilliants. The jeweler politely unlocked the case, and placed the bracelet in her hand.

"A really magnificent set. It is sold. They were purchased by Lady Isabel Earlsley."

"Lady Earlsley," said Mrs. Davenant. "Ah, yes; she is fond of diamonds, is she not?"

"Yes, and of other precious stones, too, madam. She has excellent taste and discrimination. Perhaps you have seen her set of sapphires?"

"No," said Mrs. Davenant, in her quiet way, "I have met Lady Earlsley, but I have not seen them."

The jeweler opened an iron safe, and took out a case containing a superb, a unique set of sapphires, and handed them to her.

"This is it--I have it to alter. They are the purest in the world--finer even than her ladys.h.i.+p's rubies, which are considered, but wrongly, matchless."

Una stared open-eyed, and the jeweler, pleased by her enthusiasm and admiration, took the set from its case and laid it in her hands.

As Una was bending over them fascinated, a handsome carriage drew up, and the shop door was opened by a footman in rich livery.

Una looked up, and saw a beautiful girl who, pausing in the doorway, stood regarding her.

The eyes of the two girls met, Una's with an instant frank admiration in her calm depths--a curious, half-amazed, but also admiring stare in the bright, dark eyes of the other.

The jeweler glanced from the new-comer to the gems in Una's lap, and changed color. Mrs. Davenant started nervously, and turned pale.

With a quick, bird-like, but thoroughly graceful movement, the richly-dressed lady turned, and with a smile of recognition, bowed.

"Mrs.----" she said, and hesitated.

"Davenant," said Mrs. Davenant. "How do you do, Lady Earlsley?"

Lady Isabel Earlsley, the great heiress and queen of fas.h.i.+on, held out her hand in her quick, impulsive way, but turned her quick glance on Una, whose eyes had never left the dark, bewitching face.

"Your daughter, Mrs. Davenant?"

Poor Mrs. Davenant trembled with nervous agitation.

"No--no--a young friend, Miss Rolfe," she answered, tremulously.

Lady Bell went straight up to Una and held out her hand, her eyes fixed on the now flushed face.

"How do you do?" she said, in the almost blunt fas.h.i.+on which her admirers declared so charming, and which, though envious tongues declared an affectation, was a perfectly natural consequence of her early life.

Una put her hand in the delicate white gloved one, and the two women looked at each other for a moment in silence.

Was it possible at that moment that some prophetic instinct whispered to the heart of each that the threads of both their lives were doomed to be entangled together?

Then Una suddenly remembered that she had in her hand the jewels belonging to this young lady, and with a grave smile she put them back in their case.

"You are looking at my sapphires, I see," said Lady Bell, in a tone which set the soul of the alarmed jeweler at rest. "Do you admire them?

Are they fine, do you think?"

Una smiled.

"I do not know. They are very beautiful. I have never seen anything like them before."

"Really," said Lady Bell, with a nod; "I don't care for them. They don't suit me; there is not enough color in them." Then, turning to the jeweler, she said, in that quiet tone of command which for the first time fell upon Una's ears: "Give me the rubies, please."

The man hastened to hand her a case from the safe, and Lady Bell placed the contents in Una's lap.

"Ah!" she said, with a smile, as Una's eyes opened wide with admiration, at once childish and yet dignified, "you are of my opinion, too. But the sapphires would suit you best. I wish I were your husband."

Una looked up with a smile of grave astonishment; and Lady Bell turned with a light laugh to Mrs. Davenant.

"How puzzled she looks! I mean," she went on to Una, "that if I were your husband I would give you the sapphire set; though a lover would be more suitable, would it not?"

Then seeing Una's grave, open-eyed wonder, Lady Bell turned to Mrs.

Davenant, and in a low tone, said:

"Who is she, Mrs. Davenant?--has she just come out of a convent? She is simply lovely; her eyes haunt me--who is she?"

Mrs. Davenant stammered, and fidgeted speechlessly.

"Ah!" said Lady Bell, quickly, in the same low tone. "You think I'm rude and ill-bred. They all do when I ask a simple question, or show the slightest interest in anything." She glanced at Una lingeringly: "I mustn't ask, I suppose?"

"I--I--she is new to London," said Mrs. Davenant. "It is her first day----"

"Her first day!" echoed Lady Bell, her eyes twinkling. "Do you mean that she was never in London before? How I envy her; I who am sick and weary of it! Yes, the glamour is on her; I can see it in her eyes--on her face. She is like some beautiful wild bird who has settled on an inhabited island for the first time, and is marveling at the strange sights and faces--look at her!" and she touched Mrs. Davenant's arm.

Una, quite unconscious of their scrutiny, was sitting looking dreamily into the street with its ceaseless throng of carriages and people. Lady Bell had hit upon a happy simile; she looked like some beautiful bird, half stupefied by the strange life moving around her.

Mrs. Davenant rose; but Lady Bell, with a gentle pressure, forced her back into her seat.

"Not this minute; leave her for a minute. See what a beautiful picture she makes! New to London! Do you know what will happen when London finds that she is in its midst?"

Mrs. Davenant looked up helplessly. She, too, looked like a bird--like some frightened pigeon in the clutch of a glittering hawk.

"You can't guess," went on Lady Bell, with a smile. "Well, it will make a queen of her--all London will be at her feet within a month, and I--I shall be dethroned."

The last few words were spoken--murmured--almost inaudible, and in a tone that was half sad, half mocking. But suddenly her mood changed; and with a smile that lit up her face, and seemed to dance like a flash of sunlight from eyes to lips and back again, she said:

"At any rate be mine the credit of discovering her. I am the first at the shrine of the new G.o.ddess!" and touching Una's hand with the top of her gloved finger, she said: "Miss Rolfe, Mrs. Davenant has been kind enough to promise to come and see me tomorrow night. Are you fond of dancing?"

"I don't know," said Una, with a smile. "I do not know how to dance----"

"Heavens!" murmured Lady Bell.

"You forget, Lady Bell," murmured poor Mrs. Davenant.