me things?"

"Open it!" said Saltash, with regal peremptoriness.

But still she hesitated, till he suddenly laid his hands on hers and
compelled her. She saw a single string of pearls on a bed of blue velvet.
Her eyes came up to his in quick distress.

"Oh, I ought not to take them!" she said.

"And why not?" said Saltash.

She bit her lip, almost as if she would burst into tears. "Monseigneur--"

"Call me Charles!" he commanded.

His hands still held hers. She dropped her eyes to them, and suddenly,
very suddenly, she bent her head and kissed them.

He started slightly, and in a moment he set her free, leaving the case in
her hold. "_Eh bien!_" he said lightly. "That is understood. You like my
pearls, _cherie_?"

"I love--anything--that comes from you," she made low reply. "But
these--but these--I ought not to take these."

"But why not?" he questioned. "May I not make you a present? Are you
not--my wife?"

"Yes." More faintly came Toby's answer. "But--but--but--a wife is
different. A wife--does not need--presents."

"_Mais vraiment!_" protested Saltash. "So a wife is different!
How--different, _mignonne_?"

He tried to look into the downcast eyes, but she would not raise them.
She was trembling a little. "Such things as these," she said, under her
breath, "are what a man would give to--to--to the woman he loves."

"And so you think they are unsuitable for--my wife?" questioned Saltash,
with a whimsical look on his dark face.

She did not answer him, only mutely held out the case, still without
looking at him.

He stood for a second or two, watching her, an odd flame coming and going
in his eyes; then abruptly he moved, picked up the pearls from their
case, straightened them dexterously, and clasped them about her neck.

She lifted her face then, quivering and irresolute, to his. "And I can
give you--nothing," she said.

He took her lightly by the shoulders, as one who caresses a child. "_Ma
cherie_, you have given me already much more than you realize. But we
will not go into that now. We will go to the shops. Afterwards, we will
go out to Fontainebleau and picnic in the forest. You will like that?"

"Oh, so much!" she said, with enthusiasm.

Yet there was a puzzled look of pain in her eyes as she turned away, and
though she wore his pearls, she made no further reference to them.

They went forth into the streets of Paris and Toby shopped. At first she
was shy, halting here and hesitating the