And indeed the gems were so fine that I doubt not some indifferently honest men would have sold salvation for them.
But--a Berault his honour?
No.

I was tempted, I say; but not for long.
Thank God, a man may be reduced to living by the fortunes of the dice, and may even be called by a woman 'spy' and 'coward,' without becoming a thief! The temptation soon left me--I take credit for it--and I fell to thinking of this and that plan for making use of them.

Once it occurred to me to take the jewels to the Cardinal and buy my pardon with them; again, to use them as a trap to capture Cocheforet; again, to--and then, about five in the morning, as I sat up on my wretched pallet, while the first light stole slowly in through the cobwebbed, hay-stuffed lattice, there came to me the real plan, the plan of plans, on which I acted.
It charmed me I smacked my lips over it, and hugged myself, and felt my eyes dilate in the darkness, as I conned it.

It seemed cruel, it seemed mean; I cared nothing.

Mademoiselle had boasted of her victory over me, of her woman's wits and her acuteness and of my dullness.