"I have been watching you think for three minutes and a half, I do believe.

Come, out with it!" "Hardly _think_, sir," answered Mary.

"I was only plaguing myself between my recollection of the stone and the actual look of it.

It is so annoying to find what seemed a clear recollection prove a deceitful one! It may appear a presumptuous thing to say, but my recollection seems of a finer color." While she spoke, she had again taken the ring, and was looking at it.
Mr.Redmain snatched it from her hand.
"The devil!" he cried.

"You haven't the face to hint that the stone has been changed ?" Mary laughed.
"Such a thing never came into my head, sir; but now that you have put it there, I could almost believe it." "Go along with you!" he cried, casting at her a strange look which she could not understand, and the same moment pulling the bell hard.
That done, he began to examine the ring intently, as Mary had been doing, and did not speak a word.