In less than a second it was hidden in the long grass.

She looked for it in silence for some minutes, then she said, gently: "I have dropped my locket, Mr.Ford; is it near you?
I cannot find it." "Is it one you prize very much ?" I asked.
"I should not like to lose it," she replied, and her face paled as searching in the long grass she saw nothing of it.
I found it in a few minutes, but it was lying open; the fall had loosened the spring.

I could not help seeing the contents as I gave it to her--a round ring of pale golden hair.
"A baby's curl ?" I said, as I returned it to her.
Her whole face went blood-red in one minute.
"The only thing I have belonging to my little sister," she said.

"She died when I was a child." "You must prize it," I said; but I could not keep the dryness of suspicion from my voice.
"Mrs.Fleming," I asked, suddenly, "are you like Lance and myself, without relations ?" "Almost," she replied, briefly.
"Strange that three people should be almost alone in the world but for each other!" I said.
"I was left an orphan when I was four years old," she said.

"Only Heaven knows how I have cried out upon my parents for leaving me.