His aunt had been small, and seemed to get smaller each year. Her skin fresh, her hair white and waved and always well washed. She wore no jewelry except a ring on the third finger of her right hand and, around her neck, a gold locket on a chain. The boy had noticed the ring when she had read to him as a child. In the beginning fairy tales, then as he got older extracts from famous novels, Lorna Doone, Persuasion, Wuthering Heights and her favourite extract, because she read it so often, Pip's meeting with Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. She would sit with him on her knee, her arms around him and holding the page flat with her hand. When he was bored he would interrupt her and ask about the ring. He loved hearing her tell of how her grandmother had given it to her as a brooch and she had had a ring made from it. He would try to count back to see how old it was. Had her grandmother got it from her grandmother? And if so what had she turned it into?
他的叔祖母本来就比较瘦小，好像变得一年比一年瘦小。她皮肤清爽，一头花白的卷发总是打理得很干净。她右手的中指上戴着一枚戒指，脖子上戴着一条项链，项链上有一个金的盒式项链坠，除此之外不佩戴其他任何首饰。当他还是个孩子时，叔祖母常给他读故事，那时，他就注意到了这枚戒指。一开始读的是童话故事，后来随着他长大，便读著名小说的选摘，比如《洛娜•杜恩》、《劝导》、《呼啸山庄》，她最喜欢的选摘是《远大前程》中皮普遇到郝维辛小姐的那一段，因为她经常读。她会让他坐在她的膝盖上，胳膊搂着他，一只手水平地端着书本。 在他觉得无聊时，他会打断她，问她戒指的事。他喜欢听她讲她的祖母是怎样把一个胸针送给她的故事，然后她把胸针做成了一枚戒指。他会倒推着计算这枚戒指的历史有多久。她的祖母是从自己的祖母那里得来的吗？如果是这样的话，她又把它变成了什么呢？