For a full minute he was too amazed, too stunned, to speak.
"You—you found it!" he stammered at last.
"I never threw it away at all," she confessed. "I only made the motion. Why should I throw away a perfectly good pearl and diamond ring when the mere motion of throwing answered every purpose?"
"Every purpose? What purpose?"
"My purpose," and she smiled.
"But I—I don't understand. What could have been your object?"
"I'll tell you," she replied. He could see her eyes quite clearly now. His own had grown accustomed to the gloom. He could see them so clearly as to read mischief in them. He wondered whether it was possible that she was suffering the least bit.
"I just wondered what you would say and do. I knew of no better way to test a man's whole character than by pretending to toss away as worthless something that he highly values."
"My whole character?" he echoed. "Did you have to test it?"
"I didn't have to. I wished to. One learns of the real man, then. And I am so interested in real men."