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No, I am mistaken; Madame de Chatillon has the most beautiful set; she had them from Messieurs de Guise; but your set, madame, comes next." "What are they worth?" "Mounted?" "No; supposing I wished to sell them." "I know very well who would buy them," exclaimed M. Faucheux. "That is the very thing I ask. They could be sold, then?" "All your jewels could be sold, madame.
But that service is no longer in fashion. Its weight is its only advantage." "That is all I care about. How much does it weigh?" "Fifty thousand livres at the very least. I do not allude to the enormous vases for the buffet, which alone weigh five thousand livres, or ten thousand the pair." "One hundred and thirty," murmured the marquise. "You are quite sure of your figures, M. Faucheux?"
"Positive, madame. Besides, there is no difficulty in weighing them." "The amount is entered in my books." "Your ladyship is extremely methodical, I am aware." "Let us now turn to another subject," said Madame de, Belliere; and she opened one of her jewel-boxes. "I recognize these emeralds," said M. Faucheux; "for it was I who had the setting of them.
But that service is no longer in fashion. Its weight is its only advantage." "That is all I care about. How much does it weigh?" "Fifty thousand livres at the very least. I do not allude to the enormous vases for the buffet, which alone weigh five thousand livres, or ten thousand the pair." "One hundred and thirty," murmured the marquise. "You are quite sure of your figures, M. Faucheux?"
Three hours afterwards she went to M. Faucheux's house and received from him eight hundred thousand francs in gold inclosed in a chest, which one of the clerks could hardly carry towards Madame Faucheux's carriage for Madame Faucheux kept her carriage.
"As for diamonds, I have them in numbers; rings, necklaces, sprigs, earrings, clasps. Tell me their value, M. Faucheux." The jeweler took his magnifying-glass and scales, weighed and inspected them, and silently made his calculations. "These stones," he said, "must have cost your ladyship an income of forty thousand francs." "You value them at eight hundred thousand francs?" "Nearly so."
"M. Faucheux, you will take away with you both the gold and silver plate. Melt it down, and return me its value in money, at once." "It shall be done, your ladyship." "You will be good enough to place the money in a chest, and direct one of your clerks to accompany the chest, and without my servants seeing him; and order him to wait for me in a carriage."
On this occasion, however, she admired the size of the rubies and the brilliancy of the diamonds; she grieved over every blemish and every defect; she thought the gold light, and the stones wretched. The goldsmith, as he entered, found her thus occupied. "M. Faucheux," she said, "I believe you supplied me with my gold service?" "I did, your ladyship."
Three hours afterwards she went to M. Faucheux's house and received from him eight hundred francs in gold inclosed in a chest, which one of the clerks could hardly carry towards Madame Faucheux's carriage for Madame Faucheux kept her carriage. As the daughter of a president of accounts, she had brought a marriage portion of thirty thousand crowns to her husband, who was syndic of the goldsmiths.
"I agree," said the marquise, eagerly; "return home and bring the sum in question in notes, as soon as possible." "Yes, madame, but for Heaven's sake " "Not a word, M. Faucheux. By the by, I was forgetting the silver plate. What is the value of that which I have?" "Fifty thousand francs, madame." "That makes a million," said the marquise to herself.
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