casket on his knees.

Waiting thus, they talked desultorily for some moments. At last came
steps upon the stairs.

"Quick! The alcove!" she exclaimed. "You must not be seen by Her
Majesty's messenger."

Rohan, with ready understanding, a miracle of discretion, effaced
himself into the alcove, through the glass doors of which he could see
what passed.

The door was opened by madame's maid with the announcement:

"From the Queen."

A tall, slender young man in black, the Queen's attendant of that other
night of gems--the night of the Grove of Venus--stepped quickly into the
room, bowed like a courtier to Madame de la Motte, and presented a note.

Madame broke the seal, then begged the messenger to withdraw for a
moment. When he had gone, she turned to the Cardinal, who stood in the
doorway of the alcove.

"That is Desclaux, Her Majesty's valet," she said; and held out to him
the note, which requested the delivery of the necklace to the bearer.

A moment later the messenger was reintroduced to receive the casket from
the hands of Madame de la Motte. Within five minutes the Cardinal was in
his carriage again, driving happily back to Paris with his dreams of a
queen's gratitude and confidence.

Two days later, meeting Bohmer at Versailles, the Cardinal suggested to
him that he should offer his thanks to the Queen for having purchased
the necklace.

Bohmer sought an opportunity for this in vain. None offered. It was also
in vain that he waited to hear that the Queen had worn the necklace.
But he does not appear to have been anxious on that score. Moreover,
the Queen's abstention was credibly explained by Madame de la Motte to
Laporte with the statement that Her Majesty did not wish to wear the
necklace until it was paid for.

With the same explanation she answered the Cardinal's inquiries in
the following July, when he returned from a three months' sojourn in
Strasbourg.

And she took the opportunity to represent to him that one of the reasons
why the Queen could not yet consider the necklace quite her own was that
she found the price too high.

"Indeed, she may be constrained to return it, after all, unless the
Bohmers are prepared to be reasonable."

If His Eminence was a little dismayed by this, at least any nascent
uneasiness was quieted. He consented to see the jewellers in the matter,
and on July 10th--three weeks before the first instalment was due--he
presented himself at the Grand Balcon to convey