e me marry you, and then put me on an
allowance, or fuss about bills? You'll promise faithfully!"

"You shall have as much money as you can spend. You're an object _de
luxe_, my dear, and shall be shielded carefully in your glass case. I'm
not a fool to buy a curio, and not look after its preservation. Take
care of your beauty! Deck it up! It's mine! I've bought it--_see that
I get my price_!"

He lifted his hand and stroked the exquisite cheek. Seen close at hand,
the fineness and smoothness of the skin was even more wonderful than
from afar. He gripped the chin between finger and thumb, and turned her
face to his, staring greedily at each curve and line. In appearance, as
in manner, Claudia went in for honesty. There was no artificiality
about her beauty, not even a brush of powder upon the skin. The man who
had just settled his terms regarded his purchase with kindling eyes.

"I'll buy you your emeralds, my beauty, the finest emeralds I can find,"
he cried. "Everyone shall talk of you; everyone shall envy you. The
Queen of Beauty, Mrs John Biggs!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Claudia Biggs had been married for two years, and had flourished like
the proverbial bay-tree. Her wedding had been one of the smartest
functions of the season, her honeymoon had been spent in a lordly castle
"lent for the occasion" by its titled owner. As Mrs John Biggs, she
had made her presentation curtsey to her sovereign in a gown whose
magnificence was the talk of the town; every house that was worth
visiting threw open its doors to the millionaire and his wife, and
Society flocked to the entertainments given by them in their turn.
There had been those who had prophesied disaster from the marriage, who
had felt convinced that Claudia would not be able to endure so close a
companionship with her Ogre, but as time passed on they were obliged to
confess their mistake, for Claudia bloomed into an amazing, an almost
incredible, beauty. She had always been lovely, but the loveliness of
Claudia the maid was as nothing compared with that of Claudia the wife.
What had been, as it were, a flower of the wayside, had become the most
rare and costly of exotics, tended with every extravagance of care. The
most exquisite garments, the most costly gems, were showered upon her by
a husband who took no account of money spent on the adornment of the
beauty for which he had paid so high a pri