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The other replied, drily: "You can try elsewhere and see if any one will offer you more. I consider it worth fifteen thousand at the most. Come back; here, if you cannot do better." Monsieur Lantin, beside himself with astonishment, took up the necklace and left the store. He wished time for reflection. Once outside, he felt inclined to laugh, and said to himself: "The fool! Oh, the fool!
He only felt inclined to blame her for two things: her love of the theater, and a taste for false jewelry. After a time, M. Lantin begged his wife to get some lady of her acquaintance to accompany her. She was at first opposed to such an arrangement; but, after much persuasion on his part, she finally consented to the infinite delight of her husband.
She lavished the most delicate attentions on her husband, coaxed and fondled him; and so great was her charm that six years after their marriage, Monsieur Lantin discovered that he loved his wife even more than during the first days of their honeymoon. He found fault with only two of her tastes: Her love for the theatre, and her taste for imitation jewelry.
Had I only taken him at his word! That jeweler cannot distinguish real diamonds from the imitation article." A few minutes after, he entered another store, in the Rue de la Paix. As soon as the proprietor glanced at the necklace, he cried out: "Ah, parbleu! I know it well; it was bought here." Monsieur Lantin, greatly disturbed, asked: "How much is it worth?"
Monsieur Lantin, then chief clerk in the Department of the Interior, enjoyed a snug little salary of three thousand five hundred francs, and he proposed to this model young girl, and was accepted. He was unspeakably happy with her. She governed his household with such clever economy that they seemed to live in luxury.
Monsieur Lantin replied, seriously: "It is only another way of investing one's money." That day he lunched at Voisin's, and drank wine worth twenty francs a bottle. Then he hired a carriage and made a tour of the Bois. He gazed at the various turnouts with a kind of disdain, and could hardly refrain from crying out to the occupants: "I, too, am rich! I am worth two hundred thousand francs."
"Well, I sold it for twenty thousand francs. I am willing to take it back for eighteen thousand, when you inform me, according to our legal formality, how it came to be in your possession." This time, Monsieur Lantin was dumfounded. He replied: "But but examine it well. Until this moment I was under the impression that it was imitation." The jeweler asked: "What is your name, sir?"
He dressed and went out. It was a lovely day; a clear, blue sky smiled on the busy city below. Men of leisure were strolling about with their hands in their pockets. Monsieur Lantin, observing them, said to himself: "The rich, indeed, are happy. With money it is possible to forget even the deepest sorrow.
Will you buy them also?" The merchant bowed: "Certainly, sir." M. Lantin said gravely: "I will bring them to you." An hour later he returned with the gems.
Then she would roll the pearl necklaces around her fingers, and hold up the bright gems for her husband's admiration, gently coaxing him: "Look! are they not lovely? One would swear they were real." M. Lantin would then answer, smilingly: "You have Bohemian tastes, my dear."
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