"You are not poor," said Baluzzi, suddenly, "is that your own?"
"My wedding present," replied Giulia.
"All this--and those precious stones, too? Show me the coronet!"
Giulia removed it. Baluzzi seized a candle which stood upon the table beside him and illuminated the glittering stones. He drank in their radiance as he slowly examined them. Then, as if making some calculation, moved his lips; every one of these stones became changed into a sparkling number, and dazzling as if in a Bengal light, a noble sum flashed before him.
"You see," said Giulia, who had grasped the sudden change equally quickly, "Blanden is liberal, and although I may earn nothing more myself, his gifts will render it possible for me, even, if not to the same extent as formerly, still to remember you."
"Do you think so?" said Baluzzi, as he looked at her with widely opened eyes.
"And although I have retired from the stage, I will save for you just the same, only do not demand impossibilities, take the circumstances into consideration; less than formerly can I only call my own, dispose of less, but, otherwise, things shall be as they were."
"Less? You are very modest! When did you ever have such beautiful ornaments before?"
"They are the Blandens' family jewels, they do not belong to me! They are only lent to me."
"Lent? You told me yourself that he had given them to you."