Transcribed from the 1911 John Murray edition , emailccx074@coventry.ac.uk
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1911
GIVES AN ACCOUNT OF OUR VILLAGE AND THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE DIAMOND
When I came up to town for my second year, my aunt Hoggarty mademe a present of a diamond-pin; that is to say, it was not a diamond-pinthen, but a large old-fashioned locket, of Dublin manufacture in theyear 1795, which the late Mr. Hoggarty used to sport at the Lord Lieutenant’sballs and elsewhere. He wore it, he said, at the battle of VinegarHill, when his club pigtail saved his head from being taken off,—butthat is neither here nor there.
In the middle of the brooch was Hoggarty in the scarlet uniform ofthe corps of Fencibles to which he belonged; around it were thirteenlocks of hair, belonging to a baker’s dozen of sisters that theold gentleman had; and, as all these little ringlets partook of thefamily hue of brilliant auburn, Hoggarty’s portrait seemed tothe fanciful view like a great fat red round of beef surrounded by thirteencarrots. These were dished up on a plate of blue enamel, and itwas from the Great Hoggarty Diamond (as wecalled it in the family) that the collection of hairs in question seemedas it were to spring.
My aunt, I need not say, is rich; and I thought I might be her heiras well as another. During my month’s holiday, she was particularlypleased with me; made me drink tea with her often (though there wasa certain person in the village with whom on those golden summer eveningsI should have liked to have taken a stroll in the hayfields); promisedevery time I drank her bohea to do something handsome for me when Iwent back to town,—nay, three or four times had me to dinner atthree, and to whist or cribbage afterwards. I did not care forthe cards; for though we always played seven hours on a stretch, andI always lost, my losings were never more than nineteenpence a night:but there was some infernal sour black-currant wine, that the old ladyalways produced at dinner, and with the tray at ten o’clock, andwhich I dared not refuse; though upon my word and honour it made mevery unwell.
Well, I thought after all this obsequiousness on my part, and myaunt’s repeated promises, that the old lady would at least makeme a present of a score of guineas (of which she had a power in thedrawer); and so convinced was I that some such present was intendedfor me, that a young lady by the name of Miss Mary Smith, with whomI had conversed on the subject, actually netted me a little green silkpurse, which she gave me (behind Hicks’s hayrick, as you turnto the right up Churchyard Lane)—which she gave me, I say, wrappedup in a bit of silver paper. There was something in the purse,too, if the truth must be known. First there was a thick curlof the glossiest blackest hair you ever saw in your life, and next therewas threepence: that is to say, the half of a silver sixpence hangingby a little necklace of blue riband. Ah, but I knew where theother half of the sixpence was, and envied that happy bit of silver!
The last day of my holiday I was obliged, of course, to devote toMrs. Hoggarty. My aunt was excessively gracious; and by way ofa treat brought out a couple of bottles of the black currant, of whichshe made me drink the greater part. At night when all the ladiesassembled at her party had gone off with their pattens and their maids,Mrs. Hoggarty, who had made a signal to me to stay, first blew out threeof the wax candles in the drawing-room, and taking the fourth in herhand, went and unlocked her escritoire.
I can tell you my heart beat, though I pretended to look quite unconcerned.