"Will you come to the jeweller's with me," he said, "and choose
whatever you like best. Those fingers of yours are made for
rings--rings of all sorts!" and he gave them a gentle pressure.
She let him escort her to Bond Street, and followed him gaily into
Raymond's; but when it came to accepting a ring from him, she
laughingly refused, and chose, instead, the most expensive diamond
bracelets and pendants in the shop. Some of these she wore--the
rest--unknown to him of course--she sold; sending the proceeds,
anonymously, to Shiel Davenport--who was starving.
When Kelson went on the stage, that evening, his thoughts were so far
away--planning for his honeymoon--that he entered the cage of a newly
imported lion without having made the necessary signs, and would most
certainly have been mangled out of recognition, had not one of the
supers, perceiving how matters lay, rushed to his assistance, and kept
the lion at bay with a pole, till further help could be procured. It
had been a narrow squeak, and to Kelson the bare idea of continuing
his performance was appalling. His nerves were, as he himself put it,
anyhow, and he preferred retiring for the rest of the evening.
But Hamar would not hear of it.
"This is the second bungle we have had," he said, "and the reputation
of the firm is seriously at stake. You must go on again and retrieve
it."
And Kelson, trembling all over, was obliged to reappear.
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