May I telegraph to have her packed and brought here from Paris ?' He was already at the writing-table looking for a telegraph form.
Margaret watched his face, for she knew that he valued the wonderful statue far beyond all his treasures, both for its own sake and because he had nearly lost his life in carrying it off from Samos, as has been told elsewhere.
As Margaret said nothing, he began to write the message.

She really had not had any idea of testing his willingness to part with the thing he valued most, at her slightest word, and was taken by surprise; but it was impossible not to be pleased when she saw that he was in earnest.

In her present mood, too, it restored her sense of power, which had been rudely shaken by the attitude of the public on the previous evening.
It took some minutes to compose the message.
'It's only to save time by having the box ready,' he said, as he rose with the bit of paper in his hand.

'Of course I shall see the statue packed myself and come over with it.' She saw his face clearly in the light as he came towards her, and there was no mistaking the unaffected satisfaction it expressed.

He held out the telegram for her to read, but she would not take it, and she looked up quietly and earnestly as he stood beside her.
'Do you remember Delorges ?' she asked.