"Of a mascot which brings good fortune to its wearer ?" Sylvia bent her head.

Of course she had heard of mascots.
"Well, if so, you have, of course, heard of objects which bring misfortune to their wearers--which are, so to speak, unlucky mascots ?" And this time it was Anna Wolsky who, leaning forward, nodded gravely.
She attributed a run of bad luck she had had the year before to a trifling gift, twin cherries made of enamel, which a friend had given her, in her old home, on her birthday.

Till she had thrown that little brooch into the sea, she had been persistently unlucky at play.
"Your friend," murmured Madame Cagliostra, now addressing herself to Anna and not to Sylvia, "should dispossess herself as quickly as possible of her necklace, of these round balls.

They have already brought her ill-fortune in the past, they have lowered her in the estimation of an estimable person--in fact, if she is not very careful, indeed, even if she be very careful--it looks to me, Madame, as if they would end by strangling her!" Sylvia became very uncomfortable.

"Of course she means my pearls," she whispered.