Had the bracelet been trumpery trash, costing say, fifteen or twenty
francs, the case would have been altered. Of that there could be no
doubt. But this triumph of the jeweller's art, with its costly diamond
ornaments! She herself had never owned a decent trinket. Her personal
knowledge of values was nil. Yet her instincts told her that this cost
money. Then there was the name of "Tiffany" on the case. She had a dim
consciousness of having heard of Tiffany. It might have cost one
hundred--even two hundred--pounds! At the thought she burned. Who was
she, and what had she done, that wandering males--the merest casual
acquaintances--should feel themselves at liberty to throw bank notes
into her lap? As if she were a beggar--or worse. There was a moment in
which she was inclined to throw the bracelet out of the carriage
window.
The mischief was that she did not know where to return it. She had Mr.
Huhn's own assurance that he also was leaving Lucerne on that same day.
Where he was going she had not the faintest notion. At least, she
assured herself that she had not the faintest notion. To return it, by
post, to Ezra G. Huhn, America, would be absurd. She might send it back
to the person whose name was on the case--to Tiffany. She would.
Then there was the portrait--hidden in the bracelet--which he had had
the capital audacity to palm off on to her under cover of a box of
chocolates. It was excellent--that was certain.
The shrewd face, with the kindly eyes in which there always seemed to
be a twinkle, looked up at her out of the little gold frame like an old
familiar friend. How pleasant he had been to her; how good. How she
always felt at ease with him; never once afraid. Although he had never
by so much as a single question sought to gain her confidence, what a
curious feeling she had had that he knew all about her, that he
understood her. How she had been impressed by his way of doing things;
his quick resource; his capacity of getting--without any fuss--the best
that was obtainable. How she had come to rely upon him--in an
altogether indescribable sort of way--when he was at hand; she saw it
now. How, in spite of herself, she had grown to feel at peace with all
the world when he was near. How curious it seemed. As she thought of
its exceeding curiousness, fancying that she perceived in the portrayed
glance the twinkle which she had begun to know so well, her eyes filled
with tears, so that she had to use her handkerchief to prevent them
trickling down her cheeks. During the remainder of her journey to Paris
that bracelet was about her wrist, covered by her jacket-sleeve. More
than once she caught herself in the act of crying.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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