I had not a hundred francs left: she stripped me as bare as a pigeon.

Her passion was uncut emeralds just then.

Well uncut emeralds made an end of me, and sent me out here.

Coeur d'Acier was a wonderful woman!--and the chief wonder of her was, that she was as ugly as sin." "Ugly!" "Ugly as sin! But she had the knack of making herself more charming than Venus.

How she did it nobody knew; but men left the prettiest creatures for her; and she ruined us, I think, at the rate of a score a month." "Like Loto," chimed in the Tirailleur.