e, using such tricks
as in Brussels I had seen the women use. . . ."

"O brave one! O beloved!"

I stretched out my hand, but she turned from the caress, and hurried
on with her tale, her eyes still fastened on the distant plain, her
voice held level on the tone of a child reciting its task.

"The jeweller, too, asked many questions. I think he was suspicious
at my coming twice in a few hours. But the sardonyx was a finer
stone than the amethyst, and he ended by giving me three hundred and
fifty livres. Two of the men were loitering for me outside the shop.
I gave them a false address and walked home quickly, longing to run
but not daring. To mislead the men, in case they were following, I
made first for the house by the archway, and there on the stairs I
met the woman coming down with a bundle of stuff.

"I bargained with her, then and there. There was a horrible man
belonging to the house, and at night-fall he fetched you, a little
before the carts arrived; and this was not a minute too soon.
For a crowd came with the carts. While the loading went on they
stood around the door, calling out vile jokes, and afterwards they
followed through the streets, waving torches and beating upon old
pans. I sat in the second cart, among half a dozen women.
My face was painted, and I smiled when they smiled. But you lay
under the straw at my feet; and when the gate was passed, while the
women were calling back insults to the soldiers there, I gave thanks
to Our Lady.

"Beloved, that is my story. At Tortona I parted from the women, and
hired the waggon which brought us the rest of the way. But I had
done better, perhaps, to go with them to Milan, as Gioconda advised.
For my money began to run low, and, save Milan, there was no large
town on the road where I could sell another jewel. Yet here again
Our Lady helped; for at Trecate I found the good priest, the brother
of these Bavarelli, and he, having heard my tale, offered to travel
to Milan and do my business. So I parted with two more of the
stones; and yet a third--a little one--I gave him for Our Lady of
Trecate, as a thank-offering. We have money enough to reward these
good people, though they lodge us for yet another six months; but the
crown has only one stone remaining. It is a diamond--set in the very
front of the band--and, I think, more valuable than all the rest."

Her voice came to a halt. "O beloved," she asked after a while,
quietly, almost despe