Suppose she should be idiot enough to give the thing away! The Princess felt her heart beat fast at the mere supposition.

There was something about Jeanne's delicate oval face, her straight mouth and level eyebrows, which somehow suggested that gift which to the Princess was so incomprehensible in her sex, the gift of honesty.

Suppose Jeanne were to tell the Count the truth! "First of all, then," Jeanne said, "I must ask you whether my stepmother has told the truth about myself and my fortune." The Princess knew then that the game was up.

She sank back upon the sofa, and at that moment she would have declared that there was nothing in the world more terrible than an ungrateful and inconsiderate child.
"The truth ?" the Count remarked, a little puzzled.

"I know only what the world knows, that you are the daughter of Carl le Mesurier, and that he left you the residue of one of the greatest fortunes in Europe." Jeanne drew a letter from her pocket.
"The Princess," she remarked, "must have forgotten to tell you.