[Gutenberg 43146] • Turquoise and Ruby

A very select English school for girls is the scene. The refusal of one of the pupils to enact Helen of Troy in a series of tableaux, based on Tennyson's "Dream of Fair Women," given at the closing of the spring term, is the motive of the whole story. It leads a poor and neglected girl to take her place, and tempts her to obtain money from her fellow pupils to help her younger sister. This dishonourable act, and the fact that a valuable bangle of turquois and ruby is stolen, bring out the finer and also the lower traits of pupils and teachers.