said, it would
console him for the mad love he felt for her. The ceremony would have
no binding force upon her whatever, and she might bring whom she
pleased to perform it. If she knew no one that she could trust, he
would invite an old college chum, and bring him to the church next
morning at half-past seven o'clock. Even if an ordained clergyman
performed the ceremony, it would not be legal unless it took place
between the hours of eight in the morning, and three in the
afternoon. If she consented to this, the emeralds were hers once more.

'This is the proposal of a madman,' said I, as I handed back the
letter.

'Well,' she replied, with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, 'he has
always said he was madly in love with me, and I quite believe it. Poor
young man, if this mummery were to console him for the rest of his
life, why should I not indulge him in it?'

'Lady Alicia, surely you would not countenance the profaning of that
lovely old edifice with a mock ceremonial? No man in his senses could
suggest such a thing!'

Once more her eyes were twinkling with merriment.

'But the Honourable John Haddon, as I have told you, is not in his
senses.'

'Then why should you indulge him?'

'Why? How can you ask such a question? Because of the emeralds. It is
only a mad lark, after all, and no one need know of it. Oh, Monsieur
Valmont,' she cried pleadingly, clasping her hands, and yet it seemed
to me with an undercurrent of laughter in her beseeching tones, 'will
you not enact for us the part of clergyman? I am sure if your face
were as serious as it is at this moment, the robes of a priest would
become you.'

'Lady Alicia, you are incorrigible. I am somewhat of a man of the
world, yet I should not dare to counterfeit the sacred office, and I
hope you but jest. In fact, I am sure you do, my lady.'

She turned away from me with a very pretty pout.

'Monsieur Valmont, your knighthood is, after all, but surface deep.
'Tis not mine to command, and yours to obey. Certainly I did but jest.
John shall bring his own imitation clergyman with him.'

'Are you going to meet him tomorrow?'

'Certainly I am. I have promised. I must secure my necklace.'

'You seem to place great confidence in the belief that he will produce
it.'

'If he fails to do so, then I play Monsieur Valmont as my trump card.
But, monsieur, although you quite rightly refuse to comply with my
first request, you will surely not reject my second. Plea