English essays -- 20th century; Short stories, English
"There are all sorts of things here too," I said. "Really, you don't seem
to have read your wedding-ring at all. Or, anyhow, you've been skipping."
"There's nothing," said Celia in the same mournful voice. "I do think you
might have put something."
I went and sat on the arm of her chair, and held the ring up.
"You're an ungrateful wife," I said, "after all the trouble I took. Now
look there," and I pointed with a pencil, "what's the first thing you
see?"
"Twenty-two. That's only the--"
"That was your age when you married me. I had it put in at enormous
expense. If you had been eighteen, the man said, or--or nine, it would
have come much cheaper. But no, I would have your exact age. You were
twenty-two and that's what I had engraved on it. Very well. Now what do
you see next to it?"
"A crown."
"Yes. And what does that mean? In the language of--er--crowns it means
'You are my queen.' I insisted on a crown. It would have been cheaper to
have had a lion, which means--er--lions, but I was determined not to
spare myself. For I thought," I went on pathetically, "I quite thought
you would like a crown."
"Oh, I do," cried Celia quickly, "if it really means that." She took the
ring in her hands and looked at it lovingly. "And what's that there? Sort
of a man's head."
I gazed at her sadly.
"You don't recognize it? Has a year of marriage so greatly changed me?
Celia, it is your Ronald! I sat for that, hour after hour, day after day,
for your sake, Celia. It is not a perfect likeness; in the small space
allotted to him the sculptor has hardly done me justice. And there," I
added, "is his initial 'r.' Oh, woman, the amount of thought I spent on
that ring!"
She came a little closer and slipped the ring on my finger.
"Spend a little more," she pleaded. "There's plenty of room. Just have
something nice written in it--something about you and me."
"Like 'Pisgah'?"
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know. Perhaps it's 'Mizpah,' or 'Ichabod,' or 'Habakkuk.' I'm
sure there's a word you put on rings--I expect they'd know at the shop."
"But I don't want what they know at shops. It must be something quite
private and special."
"But the shop has got to know about it when I tell them. And I don't like
telling strange men in shops private and special things about ourselves.
I love you, Celia, but--"
"That would be a lovely thing," she said, clasping her hands eagerly.
"What?"
"'I love you, Celia.'"
I looked at her aghast.
"Do you want me to order that in cold blood from the shopman?"
"He wouldn't mind. Besides, if he saw us together he'd probably know. You
aren't afraid of a goldsmith, are you?"
"I'm not afraid of any goldsmith living--or goldfish either, if it come
to that. But I should prefer to be sentimental in some other language
than plain English. I could order '_Cars sposa_,' or--or '_Spaghetti,'_
or anything like that, without a tremor."
"But of course you shall put just whatever you like. Only--only let it be
original. Not Mizpahs."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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