"Your Grace asked me--oh! ten years ago--and again last year--to find you the pair of that.

Now--you have it!" He put the two together, and the effect was great.

The Duchess looked at it with greed--the greed of the connoisseur.

But she shook her head.
"Marcus, I have no money." "Oh!" He protested, smiling and shrugging his shoulders.
"And I know you want a brigand's price for it." "Oh, nothing--nothing at all." The Duchess took it up, and regretfully turned it round and round.
"A thousand, Marcus ?" she said, looking up.
He laughed, and would not reply.
"That means more, Marcus: how do you imagine that an old woman like me, with only just enough for bread and butter, can waste her money on Sevres ?" He grinned.

She put it down resolutely.