“‘But I am not aristocratic; I am an American. Now, what will you give me?’
“‘What do you say to the diamonds?’
“‘Well, I think I will take the diamonds,’ she said meditatively, as though weighing the question in her mind. ‘Yes, papa said I might wear diamonds after I was married. But might not your mother object?’
“‘Not when she knows whom they are for; and, at any rate, she is going to leave them to me in her will.’
“‘Oh! and you expect that the news of our marriage will kill her?’
“‘It ought rather to give her a new lease of life. But you shall have the diamonds all the same. Will you try them on now?’
“‘Why, have you got them with you?’
“‘Certainly: I always carry them in this pocket.’
“‘How careless! You might lose them.’