"Did he really?"
"Yes! 'There's blood in her,' he said," went on Laroque, impressively. "Those were the very words he used."
Jacqueline raised the ether bottle.
"Here's his health!" she cried, taking another drink.
"I told him he could go and bet on it!" continued Laroque.
"You—you didn't tell him—who I was!" exclaimed Jacqueline, a dawning fright in her bleared eyes. She had forgotten for the moment that Laroque did not really know.
"Not much!" was the emphatic reply. "No," he laughed. "I told him, after making him promise to keep it secret, that you were the daughter of a general—that your father and mother were very rich—that your husband was a marquis and you had brought him 300,000 francs on your marriage!"
Jacqueline's hysterical cackle was added to his laugh.
"That's good! Veree good!" she chuckled. "And he b'lieved it, did he?"
"Every word of it! What do you think of that? Three hundred thousand francs! Ha, ha! And I suppose you didn't bring him a son, did you?"