“Yes, I am,” Marie-Celeste replies in a voice all but inaudible with surprise.
“Then the Queen's compliments, miss, and a bon voyage!” and grandiloquently delivering himself of this little speech, he presses two packages into her hands and retreats to the tender before she has at all had time to take it in. Marie-Celeste stands a moment, the observed of all observers, and especially of those who have overheard the message. Then our little party, moving off a short distance by themselves, crowd close about her in breathless excitement while the papers are removed from a glorious bunch of orchids. There is a card attached that reads,
For the Little Queen of Hearts,
FROM
Madame La Grande Reine.
The other package proves to be a tiny velvet box, containing a curious, quaint necklace, and this bears the inscription on one of its ends of faded ribbon,
