I deliberately laid my cap on the table which stood beside me.

'I will go madame,' I said, looking at her fixedly, 'when I know all that you know about this knot I hold, and not before.
If you are unwilling to tell me, I must wait for M.de Bruhl, and ask him.' She cried out 'Insolent!' and looked at me as if in her rage and dismay she would gladly have killed me; being, I could see, a passionate woman.
But I held my ground, and after a moment she spoke.

'What do you want to know ?' she said, frowning darkly.
'This knot--how did it come to lie in the street below your window?
I want to know that first.' 'I dropped it,' she answered sullenly.
'Why ?' I said.
'Because--' And then she stopped and looked at me, and then again looked down, her face crimson.

'Because, if you must know,' she continued hurriedly, tracing a pattern on the table with her finger, 'I saw it bore the words "A MOI." I have been married only two months, and I thought my husband might find it--and bring it to me.

It was a silly fancy.' 'But where did you get it ?' I asked, and I stared at her in growing wonder and perplexity.