“Yes, madame, that is my intention.”
“Qu’ à cela ne tienne! I will promise you as boundless a reward as his Eminence’s munificence could never dream of, if you will grant me this whim.”
“Madame, were you to hold in your tiny hand the privy purse of the Shah of Persia I would not give up those candlesticks to you.”
“Thirty thousand for that pair of candlesticks,” he shouted to the auctioneer, who, with the crowd, was eyeing the antagonists, curiously straining their ears to catch the meaning of their conversation.
“Monsieur,” said Madame Demidoff excitedly, “could we not share those candlesticks? Must you have them both?”
So extraordinary was this proposal that for a moment Volenski hardly realised its full meaning. He looked half dazed at the fair Russian, who continued eagerly—
“Monsieur, there are two candlesticks there; one is slightly damaged, the other quite whole. I will abandon you the one if you will let me have the other. Thus we shall share the honour and glory of presenting the recovered treasures to his Eminence. I suppose, being the lady, I might have the undamaged, therefore superior, article?”
What was she saying? The undamaged candlestick? He to have the broken one. Why, that was the one that held his papers, and she wished for the other. But then he was saved! saved! He could not speak, he was too excited; but, taking Madame Demidoff’s hand, he dragged her through the crowd, who made way for them, to the auctioneer’s desk, where the candlesticks were displayed. He said—
“Yes, yes; I agree. You shall have the one, the best one of the two; leave me the broken one—I am satisfied. Why don’t you take it? I will pay for them both,” he added feverishly, taking a large bundle of banknotes from his pocket-book, and forcing them into the hand of the astonished auctioneer.
But Madame Demidoff had thrown but one glance at the twin candlesticks, then retreated, her eyes nearly starting out of her head with fear and dismay. The candlesticks were twins indeed, for, in the various vicissitudes through which they had passed in the last few weeks, the arm of the undamaged Cupid had, like its fellow, been chipped from the wrist to the elbow.