‘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.  “Were I to consider myself alone, I would starve sooner than touch the sacred deposit; but to allow you, Margaret, to suffer, and to suffer for me—­to take advantage any longer of your disinterested affection and devoted fidelity—­would be base selfishness.  God has at last taught me that I was but sacrificing you to my pride, and I must hasten to make atonement.  I will endeavour to raise money on this jewel.  You know old M. Simon?  Notwithstanding his mean appearance and humble mode of living, I am persuaded he is a rich man; and though parsimonious in the extreme, he is good-natured and obliging whenever he can be so without any risk of loss to himself.’

The next day, in pursuance of her project, the abbess, accompanied by Margaret, repaired to the house of M. Simon.  ‘I know, sir,’ she said, ’from your kindness to some friends of mine, that you feel an interest in the class to which I belong, and that you are incapable of betraying a confidence reposed in you.  I am the Abbess of Vatteville.  Driven forth from the plundered and ruined abbey, I am living in the town under an assumed name.  I have been stripped of everything; and but for the self-sacrificing attachment of a faithful servant, I must have died of want.  However, I have still one resource, and only one.  I know not if I am right in availing myself of it, but at my age the power to struggle fails.  Besides, do not suffer alone; and this consideration decides me.  Will you, then, have the goodness to give me a loan on this jewel?’

’I believe, madame, you have mistaken me for a pawnbroker.  I am not in the habit of advancing money in this way.  I am myself very poor, and money is now everywhere scarce.  I should be very glad to be able to oblige you, but just at present it is quite out of the question.’

For a moment the poor abbess felt all hope extinct; but with a last effort to move his compassion, she said:  ’Oh, sir, remember that secrecy is of such importance to me, I dare not apply to any one else.  The privacy, the obscurity in which I live, alone has prevented me from paying with my blood the penalty attached to a noble name and lineage.’