"I wish I had the whole world to offer you!"
"You are not joking?" she went on, in a voice husky with too great
satisfaction.
"Will you accept only my diamond?"
"You will never take it back?" she insisted.
"Never."
She put the ring on her finger. Martial, confident of coming
happiness, was about to put his hand round her waist, but she suddenly
rose, and said in a clear voice, without any agitation:
"I accept the diamond, monsieur, with the less scruple because it
belongs to me."
The Baron was speechless.
"Monsieur de Soulanges took it lately from my dressing-table, and told
me he had lost it."
"You are mistaken, madame," said Martial, nettled. "It was given me by
Madame de Vaudremont."
"Precisely so," she said with a smile. "My husband borrowed this ring
of me, he gave it to her, she made it a present to you; my ring has
made a little journey, that is all. This ring will perhaps tell me all
I do not know, and teach me the secret of always pleasing.--Monsieur,"
she went on, "if it had not been my own, you may be sure I should not
have risked paying so dear for it; for a young woman, it is said, is
in danger with you.
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