e could do. What she actually did would have surprised him.
Realizing that a crisis had been reached calling for bold measures, she
sent for Bassenge, the milder of the two partners. He came to the Rue
Neuve Saint-Gilles, protesting that he was being abused.

"Abused?" quoth she, taking him up on the word. "Abused, do you say?"
She laughed sharply. "Say duped, my friend; for that is what has
happened to you. You are the victim of a swindle."

Bassenge turned white; his prominent eyes bulged in his rather pasty
face.

"What are you saying, madame?" His voice was husky.

"The Queen's signature on the note in the Cardinal's possession is a
forgery."

"A forgery! The Queen's signature? Oh, mon Dieu!" He stared at her, and
his knees began to tremble. "How do you know, madame?"

"I have seen it," she answered.

"But--but--"

His nerveless limbs succumbing under him, he sank without ceremony to
a chair that was opportunely near him. With the same lack of ceremony,
mechanically, in a dazed manner, he mopped the sweat that stood in beads
on his brow, then raised his wig and mopped his head.

"There is no need to waste emotion," said she composedly. "The Cardinal
de Rohan is very rich. You must look to him. He will pay you."

"Will he?"

Hope and doubt were blended in the question.

"What else?" she asked. "Can you conceive that he will permit such a
scandal to burst about his name and the name of the Queen?"

Bassenge saw light. The rights and wrongs of the case, and who might
be the guilty parties, were matters of very secondary importance. What
mattered was that the firm should recover the 14,000,000 livres for
which the necklace had been sold; and Bassenge was quick to attach full
value to the words of Madame de la Motte.

Unfortunately for everybody concerned, including the jewellers
themselves, Bohmer's mind was less supple. Panic-stricken by Bassenge's
report, he was all for the direct method. There was no persuading him to
proceed cautiously, and to begin by visiting the Cardinal. He tore away
to Versailles at once, intent upon seeing the Queen. But the Queen,
as we know, had had enough of Bohmer. He had to content himself with
pouring his mixture of intercessions and demands into the ears of Madame
de Campan.

"You have been swindled, Bohmer," said the Queen's lady promptly. "Her
Majesty never received the necklace."

Bohmer would not be convinced. Disbelieving, and goaded to fury, he
returned to Bas