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Newspaper Page Text
wm&m2?!M RIVER AND RING AN EPISODE OF THE LONDON EMBANKMENT THAT ILLUSTRATED AN OLD AND TRUE SAYING , BY ANlttOCY HUPfc (Copyright, 1914, by the Newspaper Enterprise Association.) It was a dark and gusty night; rain now drizzled and now whistled down ; the wet pavement gleamed under the lamps, and the policeman's water proof cape flashed back as it were an answering signal. The few people about scurried hard for home or some makeshift shelter no need to bid them "move on" ! The policeman had his beat, and his thoughts, pret ty well to himself. His beat lay along the Embankment at the Westminster end; his thoughts were wholly set on wondering how long the hands on the clock in the tower up there would take to cover what was professedly only half an hour; the boom of ten o'clock from Big Ben would set him free. He strolled along with the pon derous passivity that characterizes the policeman unemployed. Yet the next moment his eye his human eye, not his professional brighten ed somewhat at the sight of a grace ful figure leaning against the par apet just under a lamp. He strolled more slowly, aiming at noiselessness for he did not wish to disturb the girl; she was obviously engrossed in thought, gazing across to the wharfs on the Surrey side, her hands clasp ed, and her elbows resting on the parapet. She was draped from neck to feet in a long cloak; to the pelt of the rain she seemed quite indifferent. When the policeman was some ten paces from her, he stopped sudden ly; she had unclasped her hands, and by that action revealed a small ob ject which had lain hidden between them. It was a little case; the next moment the policeman her preoc cupation allowed him to steal grad ually up to her saw her open it; with one hand she took out a "ring; with the other she flung the case in to the-river. Then she put the ring on the third finger of her left hand and seemed to study the effect it made so placed. In an instant the policeman be came professional. He was by her side. "Seeing how it looks on you?" he asked. Stie turned to him with a start, showing a small, delicately featured face, pale in tint and with large eyes. "Didn't want to keep the case, didn't you?" he asked. "I didn't want to keep the case and, yes, I am seeing how it looks on me," she answered in a composed voice. "And when I .have seen how it looks on me, I'm going to throw it in the river, after the case." "That's a rum start! Throwing, pearl rings into the Thames is a funny way of spending your time, ain't ib?" "What do you. .mean?" she asked, turning and facingjiiin squarely. "The case well .that not so fun ny; cases tell tales. But I was think ing that you might Qnly have thought of throwing the ring after it quite lately since you've seen me, in point of fact. Anything in that?" She looked at him a moment longer, and then smiled tentatively. "Oh!" she said slowly, in the tone of one who makes a discovery. "You're thinking ?" Her smile broadened a little, developing a dimple in her left cheek. "I suppose it must look curious!" "Well, it does a bit, miss." "Her air and the quality of her voice extorted the "miss" from him in spite of his suspicions. "Of course I thought nobody would see me." The policeman's face remained gravely irresponsive to the hint of appeal- in her words. An alarm yet i fc aA tnHtaftif &4ttitMeV&tttjj2U