bills,
counted and handed them to M. Lantin, who signed a receipt and with a
trembling hand put the money into his pocket.

As he was about to leave the store, he turned toward the merchant, who
still wore the same knowing smile, and lowering his eyes, said:

"I have--I have other gems which I have received from the same source.
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.

The large diamond earrings were worth twenty thousand francs; the
bracelets thirty-five thousand; the rings, sixteen thousand; a set of
emeralds and sapphires, fourteen thousand; a gold chain with solitaire
pendant, forty thousand--making the sum of one hundred and forty-three
thousand francs.

The jeweler remarked, jokingly:

"There was a person who invested all her earnings in precious stones."

M. 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, and as he
scanned the various turn-outs with a contemptuous air he could hardly
refrain from crying out to the occupants:

"I, too, am rich!--I am worth two hundred thousand francs."

Suddenly he thought of his employer. He drove up to the office, and
entered gaily, saying:

"Sir, I have come to resign my position. I have just inherited three
hundred thousand francs."

He shook hands with his former colleagues and confided to them some of
his projects for the future; then he went off to dine at the Cafe
Anglais.

He seated himself beside a gentleman of aristocratic bearing, and
during the meal informed the latter confidentially that he had just
inherited a fortune of four hundred thousand francs.

For the first time in his life he was not bored at the theater, and
spent the remainder of the night in a gay frolic.

Six months afterward he married again. His second wife was a very
virtuous woman, with a violent temper. She caused him much sorrow.

COUNTESS SATAN

I.

They were discussing dynamite, the social revolution, Nihilism, and
even those who cared least about politics had something to say. Some
were alarmed, others philosophized, and others again tried to smile.

"Bah!" N---- said, "when we are all blown up, we shall see what it is
like. Perhaps, after all, it may be an amusing sensation, provided on