CHAPTER VI.THE DIAMOND EAR-RINGS.
Jane stepped into the passage, and Madame De Marke closed the door after her. In the upper portion of the door was a narrow sash window, covered inside with a faded, red valance, through which the light came with a dull, lurid glow. It will be remembered that Madame De Marke had kindled the end of a tallow candle after the entrance of her visitor, and thus the meagre room was in some sort illuminated.
Jane naturally kept her eyes on this curtain, for all without was profoundly dark. All at once she discovered a corner of the faded maroon folded back, leaving a small, triangular corner of the glass uncovered. To this corner the nurse bent her eye, and saw Madame De Marke half-way under the bed, where she looked more like a bundle of old clothes crowded away from sight, than a human being.
By her side, upon the soiled floor, stood an ink-bottle with its neck choked up by the swaling stump of her candle. For a moment, the body of Madame De Marke almost disappearedunder the bed, then she crept slowly backward, upon her hands and knees, dragging what had once been a small soap-box, after her.
When once free from the bed, Madame De Marke arose softly to her feet, crept toward the door, and tried the lock to be certain that it was secure. Then she gave the valance a pull, which, fortunately for Jane, rather increased the scope of vision, which, for the moment, she was admonished not to enjoy.
After satisfying herself that all was right, Madame De Marke seated herself on the floor, and drawing the ink-bottle close to her side, unlocked one of the iron bands that had been fastened around the box, and cautiously lifted the lid, raising the light in her left hand as she proceeded. Again she looked over her shoulder, holding her breath and half closing the lid. But perfect silence gave her confidence, and with a slow movement, as if each motion were a pang, she began to count out some gold pieces, which she laid in her lap with great caution, lest the gold should clink, and thus reach the ears which she knew must be listening outside the door.
All at once she stopped, held a half-eagle between her fingers, where it began to quiver and gleam from the unsteady motion of her hand, while a look of indescribable craft stole over her face. With both her eager hands, she huddled the gold back into its repository, and in its place drew forth a tattered morocco jewel-case that once had been purple, but had now a most shabby appearance, till she unclosed the lid and revealed a treasure that made Jane Kelly’s heart leap in her bosom.
The concentrated light of the candle fell within the casket, and she knew by the rainbow gleams and sparkles flashing out, that jewels of price were almost within her grasp.
Now Jane had a great passion for trinkets of all kinds, and it is doubtful if the whole of the bribe for which shewaited, would not have taken the form of some paltry ornament within twenty-four hours, had it been paid down in gold. As it was, she pressed her eye close to the glass, and peered gloatingly down upon the burning stones, conscious of their brightness, and with a dazed sense of their value.
Directly Madame De Marke closed the casket, and thrust it into the depths of a soiled pocket, that hung between her ragged calico dress and a repulsive under-shirt made from the fragments of an old patch-work bed-quilt. Then she clasped the iron bars over her box, and going down upon her hands and knees again, thrust it away out of sight, reappearing feet foremost, while her face, as it looked out from under her arm, had the aspect of a laughing hyena, so visible were the workings of some new-born diabolical craft upon it.
“Now what is she about? what is it makes her smile so?” thought Jane Kelly, recoiling from the window-pane with a shudder, for as the woman arose her sharp eyes were turned that way. “Is she a witch? Does she know that I am peeping?Isthat gold? Is the case——”
She broke off suddenly, and shrunk backward into the darkest corner of the passage, cowering down as if she had been seated on the floor and was but just aroused.
Madame De Marke opened the door, and her little, sharp face peered out.
“Come, come—hist, have ye gone?” she whispered.
“No, I am here; the darkness makes me drowsy, that’s all!” answered Jane, coming forward, “especially after watching so many nights without a wink of sleep.”
“Step in quick—why there’s heat enough gone through the door already to warm a barn. Heat costs money, don’t you know that? It’s enough to ruin one to have company in this way, wasting everything.”
Jane entered the room.
“You haven’t thought better of it? You are resolute tostrip me of more money than I can save in a year? You won’t relent, eh?”
“I want the money, ma’am, nothing more. It’s my just right. I’ve earned it, if anybody on earth ever did.”
“And you won’t take anything but money, not money’s worth, now?” cried madame, peering eagerly into the face of her visitor.
“Why? Haven’t you got the change handy?” asked Jane, with her thoughts fixed longingly on the jewels she had seen.
“The change! She calls seventy-five dollars change. As if a lone woman, like me, ever had so much money by her at once.”
Jane thought of the gold she had seen, but still her wishes turned to the diamonds in preference, and she said quickly,
“Well, money or money’s worth. I don’t much care which, so long as it’s the genuine article.”
“Well,” said the old woman, drawing the casket slowly from her pocket, and opening it; “here’s something now worth five times the money, and just the thing for you, with your plump neck and rosy cheeks. What say? Will ye have ’em instead of the money, especially as the money can’t be had just yet?”
“Let me look at them?” cried Jane, eagerly seizing upon the case. “Howthey do flash! Ear-rings, breast-pin. Oh! but they burn like fire. What are they?”
“Diamonds; every one worth heaps of money,” answered madame;—“took ’em as security for a debt, you know.”
“And will you really let me have ’em?” asked Jane, almost gasping for breath.
“Well, now you can’t expect ’em all, till there’s been more work done. Diamonds ain’t picked up from the gutters, I can tell you.”
“But how many? The ear-rings now. May I have them?”
She lifted up a long, old-fashioned ear-ring, as she spoke,glittering with innumerable pendants, that made her eyes sparkle as she held it up to the light. “These now?”
“Not all at once,” answered madame, softly, and purring about her victim like a cat. “Say one ear-ring or the breast-pin for the papers, and the other ring when that girl is—is asleep, you know.”
Jane shook her head, and grasped the ear-rings closer in her hand, gazing upon them with hungry eyes.
“No, no, I’d rather leave the breast-pin, and take both ear-rings.”
Madame took the casket from her visitor’s hand, and half-closed it.
“If I give both rings for the papers, there is no depending on the rest. No, no; take one, and come back for the mate when the whole job is finished.”
“But what good will one ring do me?” cried Jane, almost with tears in her eyes. “I can’t wear it!”
“But you will soon be after the mate,” answered madame, holding up the ring in her claw-like fingers, and making the pendants tinkle before the longing eyes of her guest. “In three days they will both be yours.”
“Yes! but what if it can’t be done? Some people never will die without a tussle for it. What good will this be to me then?”
“You can sell it for three hundred dollars, or pawn it.”
“Three hundred dollars!” cried Jane, incredulously.
“More than that,” answered madame. “You thought I wouldn’t be liberal; you higgled about the price. There is three times the sum in your hand, and without asking, too.”
The low, wheedling tone in which this was spoken would have created suspicion in a person less eager in her greed. But Jane clutched the prize in her hand, though she still cast longing glances at the casket.
“When shall I see you again with news? Remember, don’t come till you want a mate to that.”
“To-morrow night; I’ll come to-morrow night, see if I don’t.”
“Be careful of the ear-ring, dear. Keep it about you. That Bellevue is such a place for thieves. Now the papers.”
Jane took the little silken bag from her bosom, and gave it to the eager hands that were extended for it.
“That will do. Now, good night, dear. Come again. Good night. If you should meet a policeman, just turn your face toward him, and he’ll know it’s all right. You’ve got a beautiful face, Jane Kelly, a beautiful face,—no policeman that sees it will disturb you.”
Jane was now in haste to depart, and made her way out of the building in safety, though Madame De Marke only followed her to the nearest flight of stairs, with her candle and ink-bottle, leaving her to find the rest of her way out in darkness.
Jane certainly did meet a policeman not many paces from Madame De Marke’s door, and mindful of the counsel she had received, her face was turned boldly toward him. He gave it a searching look, and walked on.
Madame returned to her room, set her light on the bottom of a chair, and opening the little silken bag, examined its contents. Then, with a chuckle of intense delight, she drew forth her treasure-box again, put the papers, and what remained of the jewels, into it, and then blew out the candle, rubbing her hands with low, gleeful chuckles, that broke upon the stillness, at intervals, for half an hour. The woman had evidently accomplished some great point in her transactions with Jane Kelly that night.