"You can't bring yourself to think evil of anybody." The duchess chanced to look so remarkably calm and composed as she sat on the corn bin that I could not deny myself the pleasure of surprising her with the sudden apparition of the Cardinal's Necklace.

Without a word, I took the case out of my pocket, opened it, and held it out toward her.

For once the duchess sat stock-still, her eyes round and large.
"Have you been robbing and murdering my husband ?" she gasped.
With a very complacent smile I began my story.

Who does not know what it is to begin a story with a triumphant confidence in its favorable reception?
Who does not know that first terrible glimmer of doubt when the story seems not to be making the expected impression?
Who has not endured the dull dogged despair in which the story, damned by the stony faces of the auditors, has yet to drag on a hated weary life to a dishonored grave?
These stages came and passed as I related to Mme.

de Saint-Maclou how I came to be in a position to hand back to her the Cardinal's Necklace.
Still, silent, pale, with her lips curled in a scornful smile, she sat and listened.