After the lapse of half an hour, he heard the carriage roll away with his wife and niece.
Hurrying into Mme. Fauvel’s room, he opened the drawer of the chiffonnier, where she kept her jewels.
The last dozen or more leather and velvet boxes, containing superb sets of jewelry which he had presented to her, were gone!
Twelve boxes remained. He nervously opened them.
They were all empty!
The anonymous letter had told the truth.
“Oh, it cannot be!” he gasped in broken tones. “Oh, no, no!”
He wildly pulled open every drawer in the vain hope of finding them packed away. Perhaps she kept them elsewhere.
He tried to hope that she had sent them to be reset; but no, they were all superbly set in the latest fashion; and, moreover, she never would have sent them all at once. He looked again.
Nothing! not one jewel could he find.