Her face, from which the shawl had
fallen, glimmered white in the shadow of the trees. At last I
had shaken her pride. At last!
'What is your price?' she murmured faintly.
'I am going to tell you,' I replied, speaking so that every word
might fall distinctly on her ears, and sating my eyes the while
on her proud face. I had never dreamed of such revenge as this!
'About a fortnight ago, M. de Cocheforet left here at night with
a little orange-coloured sachet in his possession.'
She uttered a stifled cry, and drew herself stiffly erect.
'It contained--but there, Mademoiselle, you know its contents,' I
went on. 'Whatever they were, M. de Cocheforet lost it and them
at starting. A week ago he came back--unfortunately for himself
--to seek them.'
She was looking full in my face now. She seemed scarcely to
breathe in the intensity of her surprise and expectation.
'You had a search made, Mademoiselle,' I continued quietly.
'Your servants left no place unexplored The paths, the roads, the
very woods were ransacked, But in vain, because all the while the
orange sachet lay whole and unopened in my pocket.
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