ped since the moment
he gave it me in the Vier-Marchi seven years ago. It has had a charmed
existence amid many rough doings and accidents. I was always afraid of
losing it, always afraid of an accident to it. It has seemed to me that
if I could keep it things would go right with me, and things come out
right in the end. Superstition, of course, but I lived a long time in
Jersey. I feel more a Jerseyman than a Frenchman sometimes."

Although his look seemed to rest but casually on her face, it was
evident he was anxious to feel the effect of every word upon her, and
he added: "When the Sieur de Mauprat gave me the watch he said, 'May no
time be ill spent that it records for you.'"

"Perhaps he knows his wish was fulfilled," answered Guida.

"You think, then, that I've kept my promise?"

"I am sure he would say so," she replied warmly.

"It isn't the promise I made to him that I mean, but the promise I made
to you."

She smiled brightly. "You know what I think of that. I told you long
ago." She turned her head away, for a bright colour had come to her
cheek. "You have done great things, Prince," she added in a low tone.

He flashed a look of inquiry at her. To his ear there was in her voice
a little touch--not of bitterness, but of something, as it were, muffled
or reserved. Was she thinking how he had robbed her child of the chance
of heritage at Bercy? He did not reply, but, stooping, put the watch
again to the child's ear. "There you are, monseigneur!"

"Why do you call him monseigneur?" she asked. "Guilbert has no title to
your compliment."

A look half-amused, half-perplexed, crossed over Detricand's face. "Do
you think so?" he said musingly. Stooping once more, he said to the
child: "Would you like the watch?" and added quickly, "you shall have it
when you're grown up."

"Do you really mean it?" asked Guida, delighted; "do you really mean to
give him the grandpethe's watch one day?"

"Oh yes, at least that--one day. But I have something more," he added
quickly--"something more for you;" and he drew from his pocket a
miniature set in rubies and diamonds. "I have brought you this from the
Duc de Mauban--and this," he went on, taking a letter from his pocket,
and handing it with the gift. "The Duke thought you might care to have
it. It is the face of your godmother, the Duchess Guidabaldine."

Guida looked at the miniature earnestly, and then said a little
wistfully: "How beautiful a face--but the jewels