About this story
Her sister Celia opens their mother's casket anyway — pearls, amethysts, an emerald bracelet with a ring hidden beneath the velvet — and the green stone survives the entire moral argument, on your finger. Then Mr Casaubon arrives early with a folio and asks for a private opinion before tea. Celia sees where his eyes go, and understands what he has come to ask before you do.
Who you’ll meet
Celia Brooke on the stairs with her mother's jewel casket open at her breast, and Edward Casaubon below her holding his gray folio like a shield — the sister who sees what is coming and the scholar who has brought his proposal as a document, both watching the same empty stairs for the person neither of them is looking at each other about, who is the reader and never appears.
How it opens
Celia BrookeAfternoon light has found every worn place in this old carpet.
Celia BrookeUncle has gone riding, so we may divide Mother's jewels at last.
She placed the small casket between you and turned its reluctant brass key.
Celia BrookeHere are pearls, amethysts, and Mother's green bracelet.
The colors looked almost indecent beside the plain gray of your usual dress.
Choose
You should take the jewels you will wear.
We can keep them together as Mother's.
Let us divide them without considering fashion.