t looked much prettier in the shop window." She closed the
casket, and threw it carelessly on to a small table near her.

"I am unfortunate this evening," said the advocate, much mortified.

"How so?"

"I see plainly the bracelet does not please you."

"Oh, but it does. I think it lovely . . . besides, it will complete the
two dozen."

It was now Noel's turn to say: "Ah! . . ." and as Juliette said nothing,
he added: "Well, if you are pleased, you do not show it."

"Oh! so that is what you are driving at!" cried the lady. "I am not
grateful enough to suit you! You bring me a present, and I ought at once
to pay cash, fill the house with cries of joy, and throw myself upon my
knees before you, calling you a great and magnificent lord!"

Noel was unable this time to restrain a gesture of impatience, which
Juliette perceived plainly enough, to her great delight.

"Would that be sufficient?" continued she. "Shall I call Charlotte,
so that she may admire this superb bracelet, this monument of your
generosity? Shall I have the concierge up, and call the cook to tell
them how happy I am to possess such a magnificent lover."

The advocate shrugged his shoulders like a philosopher, incapable of
noticing a child's banter. "What is the use of these insulting jests?"
said he. "If you have any real complaint against me, better to say so
simply and seriously."

"Very well," said Juliette, "let us be serious. And, that being so, I
will tell you it would have been better to have forgotten the bracelet,
and to have brought me last night or this morning the eight thousand
francs I wanted."

"I could not come."

"You should have sent them; messengers are still to be found at the
street-corners."

"If I neither brought nor sent them, my dear Juliette, it was because I
did not have them. I had trouble enough in getting them promised me for
to-morrow. If I have the sum this evening, I owe it to a chance upon
which I could not have counted an hour ago; but by which I profited, at
the risk of compromising myself."

"Poor man!" said Juliette, with an ironical touch of pity in her
voice. "Do you dare to tell me you have had difficulty in obtaining ten
thousand francs,--you?"

"Yes,--I!"

The young woman looked at her lover, and burst into a fit of laughter.
"You are really superb when you act the poor young man!" said she.

"I am not acting."

"So you say, my own. But I see what you are aiming at. This amiable
confession i