.

A MASTER STROKE--Continued.
I took from my breast a little packet wrapped in soft leather, and I held it towards her.
'Will you open this ?' I said.

'I believe that it contains what your brother lost.

That it contains all I will not answer, Mademoiselle, because I spilled the stones on the floor of my room, and I may have failed to find some.

But the others can be recovered; I know where they are.' She took the packet slowly and began to unroll it, her fingers shaking.
A few turns and the mild lustre of the stones shone out, making a kind of moonlight in her hands--such a shimmering glory of imprisoned light as has ruined many a woman and robbed many a man of his honour.