Then, Nicholas, if I retain my own, yours is of no value. Never mind
that. Now don't catch words, or neither opinion will be worth a thought.
My dear, let us see it and then judge."

"My own idea, but not so well expressed," Major Hockin answered, as he
danced about, while I with stupid haste was tugging at my package of the
hateful locket. For I had not allowed that deceitful thing any quarters
in my pocket, where dear little relics of my father lay, but had
fastened it under my dress in a manner intended in no way for gentlemen
to think about. Such little things annoy one's comfort, and destroy
one's power of being quite high-minded. However, I got it out at last,
and a flash of the sun made the difference.

"Brilliants, Mary!" the Major cried; "brilliants of first water; such
as we saw, you know where; and any officer in the British army except
myself, I do believe, would have had them at once in his camlet
pouch--my dear, you know all about it. Bless my heart, how slow you are!
Is it possible you have forgotten it? There came out a fellow, and I cut
him down, as my duty was, without ceremony. You know how I used to do
it, out of regulation, with a slash like this--"

"Oh, Nicholas, you will be over the cliff! You have shown me how you
used to do it, a thousand times--but you had no cricks in your back
then: and remember how brittle the chalk is."

"The chalk may be brittle, but I am tough. I insist upon doing every
thing as well as I did it forty years ago. Mary, you ought not to speak
to me like that. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty brilliants, worth twenty
pounds apiece upon an average, I do believe. Four hundred pounds. That
would finish our hotel."

"Nicholas!"

"My dear, I was only in fun. Erema understands me. But who is this
beautiful lady?"

"The very point," I exclaimed, while he held it so that the pensive
beauty of the face gleamed in soft relief among bright blue enamel and
sparkling gems. "The very thing that I must know--that I would give my
life to know--that I have fifty thousand fancies--"

"Now don't be excited, Erema, if you please. What will you give me to
tell you who it is?"

"All those diamonds, which I hate the sight of, and three-quarters of my
half nugget; and if that is not enough--"

"It is a thousand times too much; I will tell you for just one smile,
and I know it, will be a smile of unbelief."

"No, no; I will believe it, whoever you say," with excitement superior
to grammar,