her intention! The necklace would be discovered to be paste, and Léontine would naturally be deeply incensed against her husband; Papa Bouchard was that already, but he really loved his little Léontine, and the thought of trouble between her and her husband disturbed him.

“Does Captain de Meneval know of these bills?” he asked, significantly.

[72]Léontine hung her head. “No,” she faltered, “and that is the part which distresses me. Victor has been so very prudent—has no bills, poor fellow—he has no amusements away from me—and I—I have been so selfish—” Léontine’s eyes were bright with tears.

[72]

“Don’t make yourself unhappy about Victor being too prudent. He need never give you any anxiety on that point,” was Papa Bouchard’s unfeeling reply.

There was a moment’s silence. Papa[73] Bouchard, who had a shrewd head for business, was rapidly cogitating the best thing co do under the circumstances. Léontine, who had no head for business at all, was wondering how she could keep Victor from noticing the absence of the necklace. She had just concluded to fall into a state of great weakness and prostration, thus preventing her from going into society, when she received something like a galvanic shock, for there, before her eyes, Papa Bouchard was holding up the exact counterpart of her necklace. The two necklaces made a blaze of light.

[73]

“Where did you get it?” she gasped, pointing to the glittering thing in Papa Bouchard’s hand.

Now, Papa Bouchard was a clever man, as men are clever, but he was not so clever as a woman. A brilliant scheme had flashed into his mind—he would produce the real necklace, tell Léontine it was paste, and so make sure that she would not take it to the[74] pawnbroker; and he could manage both de Meneval and Léontine equally well with the paste necklace. He did not much fancy having the responsibility of so many diamonds as the real one contained. But he had not foreseen this direct and embarrassing question of Léontine’s. He looked blank for a moment or two, and then, having no better answer ready, replied testily:

[74]

“I wish you wouldn’t ask such questions, Léontine. Of course I came by it honestly.”

“Of course—of course,” cried Léontine, jumping up. “Does Aunt Céleste know of this?”

“N—n—no,” 

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