manner." "Heaven be thanked!"
cried Mademoiselle Scuderi, her eyes sparkling with joy. With a smile
she sprang up from her seat, and going up to Cardillac quickly and
actively as a young girl, she laid her hands on his shoulder, saying,
"Take back your treasure, Master Rene, which the villains have robbed
you of!" And she circumstantially related how the ornaments had come
into her possession.

Cardillac listened in silence, with downcast eyes, merely from time to
time uttering a scarcely audible "Hm! Indeed! Ah! Ho, ho!" sometimes
placing his hands behind his back, again stroking his chin and cheeks.
When she had ended, he appeared to be struggling with strange thoughts
which had come to him during her story, and seemed unable to come to
any decision satisfactory to himself. He rubbed his brow, sighed,
passed his hand over his eyes--perhaps to keep back tears. At last he
seized the casket (which Mademoiselle Scuderi had been holding out to
him), sunk slowly on one knee, and said: "Esteemed lady! Fate destined
this casket for you; and I now feel, for the first time, that I was
thinking of you when I was at work upon it--nay, was making it
expressly for you. Do not disdain to accept this work, and to wear it;
it is the best I have done for a very long time." "Ah! Master Rene,"
said Mademoiselle Scuderi, jesting pleasantly, "how think you it would
become me at my age to bedeck myself with those beautiful jewels?--and
what should put it in your mind to make me such a valuable present?
Come, come! If I were as beautiful and as rich as the Marquise de
Fontange, I should certainly not let them out of my hands; but what
have my withered arms, and my wrinkled neck, to do with all that
splendour?"

Cardillac had risen, and said, with wild looks, like a man beside
himself, still holding the casket out towards her, "Do me the mercy to
take it, Mademoiselle! You have no notion how profound is the reverence
which I bear in my heart for your excellences, your high deserts. Do
but accept my little offering, as an attempt, on my part, to prove to
you the warmth of my regard."

As Mademoiselle Scuderi was still hesitating, Madame de Maintenon took
the casket from Cardillac's hands, saying, "Now, by heaven,
Mademoiselle, you are always talking of your great age. What have you
and I to do with years and their burden? You are like some bashful
young thing who would fain long for forbidden fruit, if she could
gather it without hands or