“I think you have been bitten, my dear lady!” he said. “Your eloquence is the result of sad experience!” “You are right!” she answered, quietly, still holding the “Eye of Rajuna” and dangling it against the light. “Perfectly so! I have been ‘bitten’ as you put it--but--it is long ago.” “Yet you cherish the idea of vengeance?” She laughed a little. “I don’t know! I cannot say! But when one has had life spoilt for one all undeservedly, one _may_ wish to see the spoiler morally ‘hung, drawn and quartered’ in a sort of good old Tudor way! Yet my story is quite a common one,--I was engaged to a man who threw me over after I had waited for him seven years--lots of women could tell the same tale, I dare say!--he’s married, and has a very fat wife and five hideous children----” “And are you not sufficiently avenged?” exclaimed Chauvet, melodramatically, with uplifted hands. “A fat wife and five hideous children! Surely far worse than the Eye of Rajuna!” Her face was clear and radiant now as she put the jewel back in its case. “Yes, possibly! But I sometimes fancy I should like to make sure that it _is_ worse! I’m wickedly human enough to wish to see him suffer!” “And yet he’s not worth such an expenditure of nerve force!” said Chauvet, smiling kindly. “Why not spare yourself for somebody else?” She looked at him with something of pathos in her eyes. “Somebody else? My dear Professor, there’s not a soul in all the world that cares for me!” “You are wrong,--_I_ care!” he replied, with an emphasis that startled her--“I care so much that I’ll marry you to-morrow if you’ll have me!” She was so amazed that for the moment she could not speak. He, perfectly calm and collected, continued with a kind of oratorical fervour: “I will marry you, I say! I find you charming and intelligent. Charm in woman is common--intelligence is rare. You are a happy combination of the two. You are not a girl--neither am I a boy. But if you take me, you will not take a poor man. I am rich--much richer than anybody knows. I have become interested in you--more than this, I have grown fond of you. I would try my best--for the rest of my life--which cannot be very long--to make you happy. I would give you a pretty house in Paris--and all the luxuries which dainty women appreciate. And I promise I would not bore you. And at my death I would leave you all I possess--even the ‘Eye of Rajuna!’ Stop now, before you speak! Think it over! I wish to give you plenty of time”--here his voice trembled a little--“for it will be a great blow--yes, a very great blow to me if you refuse!” Taken by surprise as she was, Diana could not but appreciate the quiet and chivalrous manner of the Professor, as after having made his declaration and proposal, he stood “at attention” as it were, waiting for her first word. She rose from her chair and laid one hand on his arm. “Dear Professor----” she began, hesitatingly.