her.... If
you were a buyer, I fancy I might let you have these jewels on quite
exceptional terms."

Thomery visibly hesitated.... He was looking at the pearls, which he was
still holding in his hand, and he thought.

"One might swear that these are two of the pearls stolen from Sonia at
my ball!"

Thomery did not reply at once. The broker was looking at him with a
smile; she seemed to guess his thoughts. Thomery, on his side, was
examining the woman.

"Is she simply a police informer?" he asked himself. "One of these women
who apparently are dealers, but are really in the pay of the police, and
frequent jewellers for the purpose of tracing stolen jewels?"

He was on the verge of asking her who she was, but he refrained.

If this woman had not presented herself under her true colours,
evidently she wished to pass for an ordinary dealer. It was possible
that she was really a receiver of stolen goods!

Thomery came to a decision.

"I shall have the privilege of seeing the Princess Danidoff to-morrow
afternoon; will you therefore leave the pearls with me?... I will show
them to her. Should she express the slightest wish to possess them, I
might possibly come to terms with you...."

* * * * *

"Dearest, it is sweet of you to make no objection to the way in which I
obtained this jewel for you to see, and to choose for your own, if you
will.... The correct thing would have been to ask you to accompany me to
some well-known jeweller, instead of which, I frankly confess, that
these pearls were offered to me on very advantageous terms. If they
please you, it will give me the greatest pleasure to see them adorning
your graceful neck."

Princess Sonia laughed.

"My dear, for Heaven's sake, don't worry about such a thing as that!...
A pearl is not less beautiful because it comes from some unpretentious
jeweller's shop. I am too fond of jewels for their own sake, to trouble
about the casket that enshrines them!"

Thomery bowed, well pleased.

"Here then, dear Sonia, are the two pearls entrusted to me as samples
... please, dearest, examine them carefully, very carefully ... and if
you like them, tell me so frankly...."

The Princess took the two pearls from the betrothed, and, crossing the
great drawing-room, she approached one of the bay windows, lifting the
thin hangings that she might the better examine the pearls.

"They are marvellous!" she cried.

"Dear Sonia, you think the