Page:Confessions of a wife (IA confessionsofwif00adamiala).pdf/71

My mother's face! Lean down to mine a little, out of heaven, if you can.

"Kiss me, Mother—if they will let you. I have told him I would wear his ruby ring."

So the princess, for she was royal, gainsaid him not.

"My dear Mr. Herwin: I have worn it five hours. I cannot stand it another minute. It seems to cut into my finger, and to eat my flesh like fire. I feel as if I were led, a prisoner. It seems to me like handcuffs. I don't like it at all; I really don't.

"I have taken it off, and, you see, it fell on the floor. It has rolled away under the bureau. Job has gone to try to find it. Probably he thinks it is a collar. I'm sure I should n't blame him if he did. It strikes me, I must say, very much in that same light.

Pray don't feel at all hurt if I return it to you to-morrow. You won't, will you? Really, I don't wish to be rude, or to hurt your feelings. If I supposed it possible that you could try to understand—but men are born so dull. I don't know why. I think God found his finest nature unemployed on the making of Adam, and so poor Eve was sacrificed to its expression.