asm
would have tingled to my fingers' ends. Leave the Manor of Blair in
the morning? Not for the Bank of France!

'Has my uncle acquainted you with particulars of the robbery?'

'No, madame, we were talking of other things.'

The lady leaned back in her low chair, partially closed her eyes, and
breathed a deep sigh.

'I can well imagine the subject of your conversation,' she said at
last. 'The Marquis of Blair was endeavouring to impose usurer's terms
upon you, while you, nobly scorning such mercenary considerations, had
perhaps resolved to leave us at the earliest opportunity.'

'I assure you, my lady, that if any such conclusion had been arrived
at on my part, it vanished the moment I was privileged to set foot in
this drawing-room.'

'It is kind of you to say that, monsieur, but you must not allow your
conversation with my uncle to prejudice you against him. He is an old
man now, and, of course, has his fancies. You would think him
mercenary, perhaps, and so he is; but then so, too, am I. Oh, yes, I
am, monsieur, frightfully mercenary. To be mercenary, I believe, means
to be fond of money. No one is fonder of money than I, except,
perhaps, my uncle; but you see, monsieur, we occupy the two extremes.
He is fond of money to hoard it; I am fond of money to spend it. I am
fond of money for the things it will buy. I should like to scatter
largesse as did my fair ancestress in France. I should love a manor
house in the country, and a mansion in Mayfair. I could wish to make
everyone around me happy if the expenditure of money would do it.'

'That is a form of money-love, Lady Alicia, which will find a
multitude of admirers.'

The girl shook her head and laughed merrily.

'I should so dislike to forfeit your esteem, Monsieur Valmont, and
therefore I shall not reveal the depth of my cupidity. You will learn
that probably from my uncle, and then you will understand my extreme
anxiety for the recovery of these jewels.'

'Are they very valuable?'

'Oh, yes; the necklace consists of twenty stones, no one of which
weighs less than an ounce. Altogether, I believe, they amount to two
thousand four hundred or two thousand five hundred carats, and their
intrinsic value is twenty pounds a carat at least. So you see that
means nearly fifty thousand pounds, yet even this sum is trivial
compared with what it involves. There is something like a million at
stake, together with my coveted manor house in the country, and my
eq