"But, oh! do just look at them, dear Farmer
Hartley! Aren't they beautiful? But what is that peeping out of the
cotton-wool beneath? It is something red."
Farmer Hartley felt beneath the cotton which lined the box, and drew
out--oh, wonderful! a chain of rubies! Each stone glowed like a living
coal as he held it up in the lamp-light. Were they rubies, or were they
drops of blood linked together by a thread of gold?
"The princess's necklace!" cried Hilda. "Oh, beautiful! beautiful! And
I _knew_ it was true! I knew it all the time."
The old man fixed a strange look, solemn and tender, on the girl as she
stood at his side, radiant and glowing with happiness. "She said--" his
voice trembled as he spoke, "that furrin woman--she said it was her
heart's blood as father had saved. And now it's still blood, Hildy, my
gal, our heart's blood, that goes out to you, and loves and blesses you
as if you were our own child come back from the dead." And drawing her
to him, he clasped the ruby chain round Hilda's neck.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE TREE-PARTY.
Another golden day! But the days would all be golden now, thought
Hildegarde. "Oh, how different it is from yesterday!" she cried to Nurse
Lucy as she danced about the kitchen. "The sun shone yesterday, but it
did us no good. To-day it warms my heart, the good sunshine. And
yesterday the trees seemed to mock me, with all their scarlet and gold;
but to-day they are dressed up to celebrate our good fortune.
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