"In my little box?"
She nodded, and her head drooped. "Why shouldn't I, Herr?" she said in a whisper, "it brings me luck."
He looked at her with a compassionate smile. "Luck? Brings you luck?"
"I'll tell you how, Herr," she exclaimed triumphantly. "Every bead you count----"
But at that moment he leant back in his chair, and the ring slipped through his fingers on to the floor.
Regina started up and hurried round the table to pick it up, but could not find it.
"The earth seems to have swallowed it up," she said in alarm, and she dropped on to all fours close by Boleslav's side.
He saw the nape of her beautiful neck with its fringe of crisp, dark curls, gleaming near his knee. His heart began to beat, a cold shiver thrilled through his limbs. He stared down on her with a fixed smile.
"Here it is!" she exclaimed, and raised herself into a kneeling position to hand him the treasured bauble.
He lifted his hand. He felt as if some occult power had lifted it for him, and that it weighed hundreds of pounds. Then with a timid, caressing touch he laid it on her cheek.