"Aha! Michel, you are curious to know that, now! But since you have shown so little eagerness to question me, you will kindly wait a little longer, until it pleases me to answer you."
"So it's a secret, is it?"
"Perhaps! what do you care?"
"I care very little, in truth, to know anything whatsoever concerning this princess. She has a fine palace, I work there, she pays me, and I care little about anything else for the moment. But nothing that interests my little Mila can be indifferent to me, nor should it be hidden from me, in my opinion."
"Now you are flattering me to make me speak. Well, I will not speak, there! But I will show you something that will make you open your eyes. See, what do you say to this pretty thing?"
And Mila took from her bosom a locket surrounded by large diamonds.
"They are fine stones," she said, "and worth I don't know how much money. Enough to provide me with a marriage portion if I chose to sell them; but I will never part with them, because they came from my best friend."
"And that friend is the Princess of Palmarosa?"
"Yes, Agatha Palmarosa; don't you see her cipher engraved on the gold of the locket?"
"Yes, that is true! But what is there inside this priceless trinket?"