This great fortune of yours, of which you have heard so much, and which has been so much talked about, is a myth." "What do you mean ?" Jeanne asked, looking at her stepmother with startled eyes.
"Exactly what I say," the Princess continued.

"Your father made huge gifts to his relatives during the last few years of his life, and he left enormous sums in charity.

To you he left the remainder of his estate, which all the world believed to amount to at least a million pounds.

But when things came to be realized, all his securities seemed to have depreciated.

The legacies were paid in cash.