Part 158 (2/2)
”You?”
”Yes, I.”
”How did you get it?”
”Ah! that is telling!”
”Is it a secret?”
”For every one except you.”
”Oh, my G.o.d!” said Marguerite, smiling through her tears, ”did you steal it?”
”You shall judge.”
”Well, let me.”
”Do you remember that horrible Nantouillet?”
”The rich man, the usurer?”
”If you please.”
”Well?”
”Well! One day seeing a certain blonde lady, with greenish eyes, pa.s.s by, wearing three rubies, one over her forehead, the other two over her temples, an arrangement which was very becoming to her, this rich man, this usurer, cried out:
”'For three kisses in the place of those three rubies I will give you three diamonds worth one hundred thousand crowns apiece!'”
”Well, Henriette?”
”Well, my dear, the diamonds appeared and are sold.”
”Oh, Henriette! Henriette!” cried Marguerite.
”Well!” exclaimed the d.u.c.h.ess in a bold tone at once innocent and sublime, which sums up the age and the woman, ”well, I love Annibal!”
”That is true,” said Marguerite, smiling and blus.h.i.+ng at the same time, ”you love him a very great deal, too much, perhaps.”
And yet she pressed her friend's hand.
”So,” continued Henriette, ”thanks to our three diamonds, the three hundred thousand crowns and the man are ready.”
”The man? What man?”
”The man to be killed; you forget a man must be killed.”
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