odors and ruddy with the sunlight of the Cote d'Or.
Let us have up a couple of bottles. What say you?"

"With all my heart," answered Simon smilingly.

I produced the wine and we seated ourselves to drink. It was of a famous
vintage, that of 1848, a year when war and wine throve together, and its
pure but powerful juice seemed to impart renewed vitality to the system.
By the time we had half finished the second bottle, Simon's head, which
I knew was a weak one, had begun to yield, while I remained calm as
ever, only that every draught seemed to send a flush of vigor through
my limbs. Simon's utterance became more and more indistinct. He took to
singing French _chansons_ of a not very moral tendency. I rose suddenly
from the table just at the conclusion of one of those incoherent verses,
and, fixing my eyes on him with a quiet smile, said, "Simon, I have
deceived you. I learned your secret this evening. You may as well be
frank with me. Mrs. Vulpes--or rather, one of her spirits--told me all."

He started with horror. His intoxication seemed for the moment to fade
away, and he made a movement toward the weapon that he had a short time
before laid down, I stopped him with my hand.

"Monster!" he cried passionately, "I am ruined! What shall I do? You
shall never have it! I swear by my mother!"

"I don't want it," I said; "rest secure, but be frank with me. Tell me
all about it."

The drunkenness began to return. He protested with maudlin earnestness
that I was entirely mistaken--that I was intoxicated; then asked me to
swear eternal secrecy, and promised to disclose the mystery to me. I
pledged myself, of course, to all. With an uneasy look in his eyes, and
hands unsteady with drink and nervousness, he drew a small case from his
breast and opened it. Heavens! How the mild lamplight was shivered into
a thousand prismatic arrows as it fell upon a vast rose-diamond that
glittered in the case! I was no judge of diamonds, but I saw at a glance
that this was a gem of rare size and purity. I looked at Simon with
wonder and--must I confess it?--with envy. How could he have obtained
this treasure? In reply to my questions, I could just gather from
his drunken statements (of which, I fancy, half the incoherence was
affected) that he had been superintending a gang of slaves engaged
in diamond-washing in Brazil; that he had seen one of them secrete a
diamond, but, instead of informing his employers, had quietly watched
the negr