“You didn’t really?”

“No—­honest, I didn’t.  I don’t think I could leave him, no matter what he did.  I love him!  And you love Robert, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, a woman couldn’t deliberately leave the man she loves, could she?”

Virginia made no reply and, anxiously, Fanny demanded again.

“Could she?”

Virginia nodded.  Slowly she said: 

“I think a woman might—­and be justified in it.”

“Even if she loved him?”

“No matter how much she loved him.”

Fanny was about to protest when there came a knock at the door, and Josephine entered, laden with jewel boxes of all sorts and sizes.

“These are all but the ruby cross, Madame.  That is at the jeweller’s.  John showed me the receipt for it.”

“Yes, I remember,” said Virginia hurriedly.

The girl placed the boxes on the table near the other jewels.

“Aren’t they beautiful!” exclaimed Fanny enthusiastically.  Quickly she asked:  “Which is your favorite?”

“The pearls,” replied Virginia quietly.

Going to the table, the elder sister opened some of the boxes and took the jewels in her hand admiringly.

“They must have cost a fortune!” she went on ecstatically.  “This is the first time I’ve seen them together.  They’re simply great!”

Josephine turned to address her mistress.

“Will Madame go out this morning?”

Virginia nodded.

“Probably.”

“What furs will Madame wear?”

“None.  Bring my cloth coat and the hat that goes with it.”

“Oui, Madame.”

Fanny was still standing spellbound before the table, feasting her eyes on the valuable collection of costly gems.

“If these were mine,” she went on enthusiastically, “I’d have them out and count ’em up every day.  They’d have no chance to get away from me!  My, but they’re stunning!  Robert’s very good to you, isn’t he?”

“Very,” replied her sister dryly.

Picking up a diamond solitaire ring and examining it, Fanny asked: 

“This was his first present, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember how scared we both were that somebody might break into the room and steal it and how we used to hide it under the mattress every night and take it out again when we got up?”

Virginia nodded.  With averted face she said: 

“Yes—­I remember.”

“And the morning we were in a hurry and forgot it till we were on the car!  I can see you now, reaching for the bell and then getting off the wrong way.  And how you did run!  If you had gone in the ladies’ race at the Shipping Clerks’ Annual Picnic and had run as fast as that, you’d have won the genuine tortoise-shell side combs sure!”

Virginia smiled in spite of herself.  Quietly she replied: 

“I suppose I was excited.  It was the first piece of real jewelry I had ever owned.”