"As for diamonds, I have them in numbers; rings, necklaces, sprigs, ear-rings, clasps.

Tell me their value, M.Faucheux." The jeweler took his magnifying-glass and scales, weighed and inspected them, and silently made his calculations.

"These stones," he said, "must have cost your ladyship an income of forty thousand francs." "You value them at eight hundred thousand francs ?" "Nearly so." "It is about what I imagined--but the settings are not included ?" "No, madame; but if I were called upon to sell or to buy, I should be satisfied with the gold of the settings alone as my profit upon the transaction.

I should make a good twenty-five thousand francs." "An agreeable sum." "Very much so, madame." "Will you then accept that profit, then, on condition of converting the jewels into money ?" "But you do not intend to sell you diamonds, I suppose, madame ?" exclaimed the bewildered jeweler.
"Silence, M.Faucheux, do not disturb yourself about that; give me an answer simply.

You are an honorable man, with whom my family has dealt for thirty years; you knew my father and mother, whom your own father and mother served.