or his son's widow.'

'And by what means did you know her not to be the mean creature she
pretended?' said the Chevalier, with a gesture of scornful horror.

'Illustrissimo, I never forget a face. I had seen this lady with M. le
Baron when they made purchases of various trinkets at Montpipeau; and
I saw her full again. I had the honour to purchase from her certain
jewels, that the Eccellenza will probably redeem; and even--pardon,
sir--I cut off and bought of her, her hair.'

'Her hair!' exclaimed the Chevalier, in horror. 'The miserable girl to
have fallen so low! Is it with you, fellow?'

'Surely, Illustrissimo. Such tresses--so shining, so silky, so well
kept,--I reserved to adorn the heads of Signor Renato's most princely
customers', said the man, unpacking from the inmost recesses of one of
his most ingeniously arranged packages, a parcel which contained the
rich mass of beautiful black tresses. 'Ah! her head looked so noble,' he
added, 'that I felt it profane to let my scissors touch those locks; but
she said that she could never wear them openly more, and that they did
but take up her time, and were useless to her child and her father--as
she called him; and she much needed the medicaments for the old man that
I gave her in exchange.'

'Heavens! A daughter of Ribaumont!' sighed the Chevalier, clenching his
hand. 'And now, man, let me see the jewels with which the besotted child
parted.'

The jewels were not many, nor remarkable. No one but a member of the
family would have identified them, and not one of the pearls was there;
and the Chevalier refrained from inquiring after them, lest, by putting
the Italian on the scent of anything so exceptionally valuable, he
should defeat his own object, and lead to the man's securing the pearls
and running away with them. But Ercole understood his glance, with the
quickness of a man whose trade forced him to read countenances. 'The
Eccellenza is looking for the pearls of Ribaumont? The lady made no
offer of them to me.'

'Do you believe that she has them still?'

'I am certain of it, sir. I know that she has jewels--though she said
not what they were--which she preserved at the expense of her hair. It
was thus. The old man had, it seems, been for weeks on the rack with
pains caught by a chill when they fled from La Sablerie, and, though the
fever had left him, he was still so stiff in the joints as to be unable
to move. I prescribed for him unguents of balm and Indi