'The only heirloom I shall take with me,' he said.
'Is a look at them too great a favour to ask from their jealous
guardian?' she asked.
He smiled, half ashamed of his own annoyance at being obliged to
place them in her hands. He was sure she would try to cajole him
out of them, and by way of asserting his property in them he did
not detach them from the band of his black velvet cap, but gave it
with them into her hand. She looked at each one, and counted them
wistfully.
'Seventeen!' she said;' and how beautiful! I never saw them so
near before. They are so becoming to that fair cheek that I
suppose no offer from my--my uncle, on our behalf, would induce you
to part with them?'
An impulse of open-handed gallantry would have made him answer, 'No
offer from your uncle, but a simple request from you;' but he
thought in time of the absurdity of returning without them, and
merely answered, 'I have no right to yield them, fair lady. They
are the witness to my forefather's fame and prowess.'
'Yes, sir, and to those of mine also,' she replied. 'And you would
take them over to the enemy from whom that prowess extorted them?'
'The country which honoured and rewarded that prowess!' replied
Berenger.
She looked at him with an interrogative glance of surprise at the
readiness of his answer; then, with half a sigh, said, 'There are
your pearls, sir; I cannot establish our right, though I verily
believe it was the cause of our last quarrel;' and she smiled
archly.
'I believe it was,' he said, gravely; but added, in the moment of
relief at recovering the precious heirloom, 'though it was Diane
who inspired you to seize upon them.'
'Ah! poor Diane! you sometimes recollect her then? If I remember
right, you used to agree with her better than with your little
spouse, cousin!'
'If I quarrelled with her less, I liked her less,' answered
Berenger--who, since the act of separation, had not been so guarded
in his demeanour, and began to give way to his natural frankness.
'Indeed! Diane would be less gratified than I ought to be. And
why, may I ask?' 'Diane was more caressing, but she had no truth.'
'Truth! that was what feu M. le Baron ever talked of; what
Huguenots weary one with.'
'And the only thing worth seeking, the real pearl,' said Berenger,
'without which all else is worthless.'