Volume II Part 38 (1/2)
”And as you are a magnifico, you--”
”Lent them! they will be mortgaged on her Arnonville farm--short accounts make long friends. But never mind; to lend in two hours one hundred thousand francs to some one who wants them, is generous and rare. Is it not, spendthrift? You who are an expert at loans,” said the Duke de Lucenay, laughing, without dreaming of the bearing of his speech.
Notwithstanding his audacity, the viscount at first slightly blushed, but he said with effrontery, ”One hundred thousand francs! enormous.
How can a woman ever have need of such an amount. With men that's another story.”
”I don't know what she wanted with the money. It is all the same to me. Some bills, probably some urgent creditors; that's her look-out.
And, besides, you well know, my dear Saint Remy, that in lending her my money, it would have been in the worst taste in the world to ask what she wanted it for.”
”It is, however, a very excusable curiosity in those who lend, to wish to know what the borrower wants to do with the money,” said the viscount, laughing.
”Saint Remy,” said D'Harville, ”you, who have such excellent taste, must aid me in choosing the set I intend for my wife; your approbation will sanction my choice--be it law.”
The jeweler entered, carrying several caskets in a large leather bag.
”Ah! here is M. Baudoin!” said Lucenay.
”At your grace's service.”
”I am sure that it is you who ruin my wife with your infernal and dazzling temptations,” said Lucenay.
”Her grace has only had her diamonds reset this winter,” said the jeweler, slightly embarra.s.sed. ”I have this moment left them with her grace, on my way here.”
Saint Remy knew that Madame de Lucenay, to a.s.sist him, had changed her diamonds for false ones; this conversation was very disagreeable to him, but he said boldly, ”How curious these husbands are! do not answer, M. Baudoin.”
”Curious! goodness, no,” answered the duke; ”my wife pays; she is richer than I am.”
During this conversation, Baudoin had displayed on a bureau several admirable necklaces of rubies and diamonds.
”How splendid! how divinely the stones are cut!” said Lord Douglas.
”Alas! my lord,” answered the jeweler, ”I employed in this work one of the best artisans in Paris; unfortunately, he has gone mad, and I shall never find his equal. My broker tells me that it is probably misery which has turned his brain, poor man.”
”Misery! you confide diamonds to a man in poverty!”
”Certainly, my lord, and I have never known an instance of an artisan concealing or secreting anything confided to him, however poor he might be.”
”How much for this necklace?” asked D'Harville.
”Your lords.h.i.+p will remark that the stones are of splendid cutting, and the purest water, almost all of the same size.”
”Here are some wordy precautions most menacing for your purse,” said Saint Remy, laughing; ”expect now, D'Harville, some exorbitant price.”
”Come, M. Baudoin, your lowest price?” said D'Harville.
”I do not wish to make your lords.h.i.+p haggle, so I say the lowest is forty-two thousand francs.”
”Gentlemen!” cried Lucenay, ”let us admire D'Harville in silence. To arrange a surprise for his wife for forty-two thousand francs! The devil! don't go and noise that abroad; it will be a detestable example.”