the remainder of his days. Truly,
a pleasant dream.

But it was only a dream after all, as he himself in his cooler moments
was quite ready to acknowledge. It was nothing but a dream even when
Platzoff wrung from him an unreluctant consent to extend his visit at
Bon Repos for another six weeks. If he stayed for six months, there
seemed no likelihood that at the end of that time he would be one whit
wiser on the one point on which he thirsted for information than he was
now. Still, he was glad for various reasons to retain his pleasant
quarters a little while longer.

Truth to tell, in Captain Ducie M. Platzoff had found a guest so much
to his liking that he could not make up his mind to let him go again.
Ducie was incurious, or appeared to be so; he saw and heard, and asked
no questions. He seemed to be absolutely destitute of political
principles, and therein he formed a pleasant contrast both to M.
Platzoff himself and to the swarm of foreign gentlemen who at different
times found their way to Bon Repos. He was at once a good listener and a
good talker. In fine, he made in every way so agreeable, and was at the
same time so thorough a gentleman that Platzoff was as glad to retain
him as he himself was pleased to stay.

Three out of the Captain's second term of six weeks had nearly come to
an end when on a certain evening, as he and Platzoff sat together in the
smoke-room, the latter broached a subject which Ducie would have wagered
all he possessed--though that was little enough--that his host would
have been the last man in the world even to hint at.

"I think I have heard you say that you have a taste for diamonds and
precious stones," remarked Platzoff. Ducie had hazarded such a remark on
one or two occasions as a quiet attempt to draw Platzoff out, but had
only succeeded in eliciting a little shrug and a cold smile, as though
for him such a statement could have no possible interest.

"If I have said so to you I have only spoken the truth," replied Ducie.
"I am passionately fond of gems and precious stones of every kind. Have
you any to show me?"

"I have in my possession a green diamond said to be worth a hundred and
fifty thousand pounds," answered the Russian quietly.

The simulated surprise with which Captain Ducie received this
announcement was a piece of genuine comedy. His real surprise arose from
the fact of Platzoff having chosen to mention the matter to him at all.

"Great heaven!" he exclaimed.