CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
A TREASURE INDEED.
Darsie was one of the last guests to arrive upon the final scene of thetreasure hunt, and already the merry process of parcel opening hadbegun. The young girl who had captured three prizes was on her kneesbefore a garden seat, laying them out in a row to be seen and admired ofall. Gaily dressed women were running about appealing to their malefriends for the loan of penknives to cut the encircling string, and theair was full of the sound of laughter and happy, triumphant voices.
"How lovely! How beautiful! Isn't it charming? _Just_ what I wanted!"
Darsie stood in the background, her hands clasping her bundle behind herback, so as to screen it from view until the right moment arrived forits production. The prize-winners were one and all in such a desperatehurry to examine their "finds" that she would not have long to wait, andmeanwhile the scene was delightful to witness.
Every one looked gay, and happy and smiling; the many-coloured frocks ofthe women made charming flecks of colour against the sombre green of theold cedar, as they moved to and fro with dazzling, kaleidoscopic effect.Darsie had never even imagined such a scene; it seemed to her more likefairyland than the dull work-a-day world.
She looked on, absorbed in delighted admiration, while one after anotherthe coverings were torn from the dainty packages, and the brilliance ofthe scene was enhanced by the glitter of silver, and glass, and daintypatches of colour. It would take long, indeed, to write of thetreasures which Mrs Percival had amassed in that day in town; it seemedto Darsie that nothing less than the contents of an entire shop windowcould have supplied so bewildering a variety. Bags, purses, satchels,brushes, manicure-cases, blotters, boxes, cigarette-cases, photographframes, fans, brooches, bracelets, buckles, studs, tie-pins, waistcoatbuttons--wherever the eye turned there seemed something fresh andbeautiful to admire.
After such an Aladdin's feast, would not her workman's bundle fall veryflat? With a sudden access of humility Darsie was about to turn tailand put the poor man's dinner back in its hiding-place, when from acrossthe lawn she met Ralph's eyes fixed upon her with an expression ofpatronising commiseration. He was pitying her, because she had comeback empty-handed when sharper eyes had reaped so rich a harvest! Thattouch of superiority made short work of Darsie's hesitation. She wouldshow that she was in no need of pity, that so far from being overpoweredby failure, she remained jaunty and self-confident enough to turn herown disappointment into a joke for the amusement of others! With headthrown back she marched dramatically forward to the spot where MrsPercival stood, the gracious mistress of the ceremonies, and held thebundle towards her in extended hands.
"Dear child, what have you there? A bundle--a workman's bundle! Wherein the world have you discovered that?"
"In the trunk of an old tree, in the orchard near the wall."
"In the orchard? It belongs most likely to one of the men. His dinner,I should say, but what an odd place to hide it! So dirty!" She gave adainty little shake of distaste. "I should put it away, dear, really!It is covered with dust."
"It's a very _lumpy_ dinner," said Darsie, patting the surface of thebundle with curious fingers. "I thought perhaps it was a treasure doneup in a different way from the others. It's heavy, too, far heavierthan bread and cheese. I can open it, can't I? Just to make sure!"
"Oh, certainly, if you like--" assented Mrs Percival dubiously, andDarsie waited for no further permission, but promptly knelt down on thegrass and set to work to untie the knotted ends of the checkedhandkerchief. The surrounding guests gathered around in a laughingcircle, being in the gay and gratified frame of mind when anydistraction is met halfway, and ensured of a favourable reception. Whatwas this pretty girl about? What joke was hidden away in thiscommonplace-looking bundle?
The knot was strongly tied, but Darsie's fingers were strong also and ina minute's time it was undone, and the corners of the handkerchiefdropped on the grass to reveal an inner bag of thick grey linen tiedagain round the mouth.
"It _is_ lumpy!" repeated Darsie again; then with a tug the string cameloose, and lifting the bag in her hands, she rained its contents overthe grass.
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Was it a dream? Was it some fantasy of imagination--some wonderfuleffect of sunshine shining upon hundreds and hundreds of dewdrops, andturning them into scintillating balls of light, catching reflectionsfrom the flowers in yonder beds, and sending dancing rays of red, blue,and green across the grass? Red and blue and green the rainbow dropsgleamed upon the ground, vivid and clear as the loveliest among theblossoms, but possessed of a radiance which no earth flower hadinherited before.
Darsie sat back on her heels, her arms, falling slack by her sides, herwide eyes fixed on the ground in a surprise too complete for speech.Nobody spoke; the stupor in her own brain must surely have communicateditself to the guests crowding around, for while one might have countedfifty there was blank, utter silence upon the lawn. Then suddenly camea dramatic interruption; a cry, almost a scream, in a high, femininevoice, and a tall, fashionably dressed woman grasped wildly at adangling chain of stones.
"My rubies! My rubies! My beautiful, beautiful rubies! Found again!_Safe_! Oh, my rubies!" She burst into excited sobs, a gentleman cameforward and led her gently aside, but her place was immediately taken byother women--white-faced, eager, trembling with anxiety.
"Oh! Oh-h--let me look! It's the jewels, the lost jewels-- Are mydiamonds among them? Do you see a diamond necklace with an emeraldclasp? Oh, _do_, do look!"
"My sapphires! They were taken, too. My sapphires!--"
They fell on their knees, regardless of their filmy draperies, andgrasped at one shining treasure after another. The delicate chains wereknotted together; curved corners of gold had caught in other curvedcorners, so that in some cases half a dozen different ornamentspresented the appearance of one big, bejewelled ball, and it was no easymatter to disentangle one from the other. The different owners,however, showed a marvellous quickness in recognising even a fragment oftheir lost treasures, and their exultation was somewhat undignified asthey turned and twisted and coaxed the dainty threads, and finallyclasped their lost treasures, safe and sound, and all the time Darsiesat back on her heels, with her golden hair hanging in heavy masses overher shoulders, her eyes fixed upon this extraordinary scene, staring--staring!
"Darsie, dear child, how can we thank you?" Mrs Percival's low voicetrembled with earnestness; she had lifted a long string of pearls fromthe grass, and now held it between both hands, with a transparentpleasure it was true, but without any of the hysteric excitement shownby her guests.
"Do you realise all that your workman's bundle contained, or the weightyou have taken off our minds? It was the thief's bundle, the bundle ofjewels which he stole from the house on the night of the Hunt Ball,which we have tried so hard to recover! To think--to think that allthis time they have been hidden close at hand!"
"Hidden with a purpose, too! Look at this, Evelyn!" interrupted MrPercival, holding out a corner of the checked handkerchief towards hiswife, with a stern look on his handsome face--
"`B.W.' That's Wilson's property! He was a worse offender than wethought."
"Wilson? That was the young gamekeeper, wasn't it?" asked another man--the husband of the lady who was still crooning over her recovereddiamonds. "You thought he had been led away by smart London thieves,but this seems as if he had taken a leading part. Looks, too, as ifthere may have been only himself and Forbes in the affair!"
"Just so! No wonder Wilson refused to give the names of his colleagues.When the chase grew too hot he hid the spoils in this tree--evidentlyan old hiding-place--before climbing the wall. If he had made clearaway that night we should never have suspected his share in the theft.He would have turned up as usual next morning, and expressed greatsurprise at the news. As it is he and Forbes are no doubt patientlywaiting until their sentences are out, expecting to s
lip back some darknight and secure their prey. From such point of view it is a smallbusiness to serve a few months when there's a fortune waiting at theend! Well, this takes ten years off my back. I can't tell you how thewhole business has preyed on our minds. My dear fellow, I am sothankful that your diamonds have turned up!"
"My dear fellow, it was fifteen times worse for you than for us! A mostuncomfortable position; I congratulate you a hundred times. Just in thenick of time, too. In a month or so there would have been no bundle todiscover."
A general gasp at once of dismay and relief passed round the littleinner circle of those most nearly interested in the recovered treasures,and the first excitement of recovery having passed, every one seemedbent on lavishing thanks and praises upon the girl through whom thehappy discovery had come about.
"Who is she?"
"What is her name?"
"Where does she come from?" The questions buzzed on every side, and theanswer, "Lady Hayes's grand-niece," served only to enhance existingattractions. Darsie found herself kissed, patted, embraced, called by adozen caressing names by half a dozen fine ladies in turn, during whichprocess every eye on the lawn was turned upon her blushing face.Through a gap in the crowd she could see Lady Hayes holding as it were asecondary court, being thanked effusively for possessing a grand-niecewith a faculty for recovering jewels, and bowing acknowledgments with abright patch of colour on either cheekbone. The position was so strangeand bewildering that even yet it seemed more like a dream than reality;that sudden rain of jewels descending from the linen bag was the sort ofthing one might expect in an Arabian night adventure rather than in themidst of a decorous English garden-party! It must surely be inimagination that she, Darsie Garnett, has been hailed as a good fairy toall these fashionably dressed men and women!
The almost hysteric effusion of the women who kissed and gushed aroundher must surely have something infectious in its nature, since sheherself was beginning to feel an insane inclination to burst into tearsor laughter, it was immaterial which of the two it should be. Darsieturned a quick look around, searching for a way of escape, and at thatmoment Noreen's hand pressed on her arm, and she found herself being ledgently towards the house.
"Poor old Darsie, then! She looks quite dazed!" said Noreen's voice."No wonder, after all that fuss. You've been kissed to pieces, poordear, and howled over, too. Silly things! howling when things are lost,and howling again when they are found! I've no patience with them; but,oh, my dear, I _do_ bless you for what you've done! You've no idea howrelieved we shall be. It was such a _stigma_ to have your guests robbedunder your own roof, and by one of your own men, too. Mother has neverbeen the same since--worried herself into nerves, and fancied every oneblamed her, and thought she'd been careless. You can't think _how_happy she'll be writing to the people who aren't here to-day tellingthem that their things are found. She'll feel a new creature."
"I'm so glad. She's a dear. Wasn't she sweet and dignified among themall? Oh, dear! I'm all churned up. I thought as I couldn't find atreasure I'd have a little joke on my own account, and after all I foundthe biggest treasure of all, Noreen! how much money were those thingsworth?"
"Oh, my dear, don't ask me! Mother's pearls alone are worth threethousand, and that's nothing to the rest. Mrs Ferriers' rubies are themost valuable, I believe. Altogether it must be a fortune--to saynothing of the associations. Isn't it strange to think of? An hour agoyou were a stranger whom scarcely any one knew even by sight, and now ina flash you have become a celebrity, a heroine--the pet of the county!"
"Am I? Really? It sounds agreeable. I'll write to-night and tell VieVernon, and sign myself `The Pet of the County.' She _will_ beimpressed. Pity it wasn't my own county, where it would be of more use.I shall probably never see these good people again."
"Fiddle!" cried Noreen derisively. "No chance of that. Whether youlike it or no, my dear, this day has settled your fate. You can neverbe a mere acquaintance any more. You've done us a service which willbind us together as long as we live. Henceforth a bit of you belongs tous, and we'll see that we get it!"