is it?"

"To leave behind you the diamond you have on your finger. We shall both
get into trouble. You will ruin both yourself and me by your folly."

"How so?" said Andrea.

"How? You put on a livery, you disguise yourself as a servant, and yet
keep a diamond on your finger worth four or five thousand francs."

"You guess well."

"I know something of diamonds; I have had some."

"You do well to boast of it," said Andrea, who, without becoming angry,
as Caderousse feared, at this new extortion, quietly resigned the ring.
Caderousse looked so closely at it that Andrea well knew that he was
examining to see if all the edges were perfect.

"It is a false diamond," said Caderousse.

"You are joking now," replied Andrea.

"Do not be angry, we can try it." Caderousse went to the window, touched
the glass with it, and found it would cut.

"Confiteor," said Caderousse, putting the diamond on his little finger;
"I was mistaken; but those thieves of jewellers imitate so well that it
is no longer worth while to rob a jeweller's shop--it is another branch
of industry paralyzed."

"Have you finished?" said Andrea,--"do you want anything more?--will you
have my waistcoat or my hat? Make free, now you have begun."

"No; you are, after all, a good companion; I will not detain you, and
will try to cure myself of my ambition."

"But take care the same thing does not happen to you in selling the
diamond you feared with the gold."

"I shall not sell it--do not fear."

"Not at least till the day after to-morrow," thought the young man.

"Happy rogue," said Caderousse; "you are going to find your servants,
your horses, your carriage, and your betrothed!"

"Yes," said Andrea.

"Well, I hope you will make a handsome wedding-present the day you marry
Mademoiselle Danglars."

"I have already told you it is a fancy you have taken in your head."

"What fortune has she?"

"But I tell you"--

"A million?" Andrea shrugged his shoulders.

"Let it be a million," said Caderousse; "you can never have so much as I
wish you."

"Thank you," said the young man.

"Oh, I wish it you with all my heart!" added Caderousse with his hoarse
laugh. "Stop, let me show you the way."

"It is not worth while."

"Yes, it is."

"Why?"

"Because there is a little secret, a precaution I thought it desirable
to take, one of Huret & Fitchet's locks, revised and improved by
Gaspard Caderousse; I will manufacture you a similar one when you