"Would that be sufficient?" continued she. "Shall I call Charlotte,
so that she may admire this superb bracelet, this monument of your
generosity? Shall I have the concierge up, and call the cook to tell
them how happy I am to possess such a magnificent lover."
The advocate shrugged his shoulders like a philosopher, incapable of
noticing a child's banter. "What is the use of these insulting jests?"
said he. "If you have any real complaint against me, better to say so
simply and seriously."
"Very well," said Juliette, "let us be serious. And, that being so, I
will tell you it would have been better to have forgotten the bracelet,
and to have brought me last night or this morning the eight thousand
francs I wanted."
"I could not come."
"You should have sent them; messengers are still to be found at the
street-corners."
"If I neither brought nor sent them, my dear Juliette, it was because I
did not have them. I had trouble enough in getting them promised me for
to-morrow. If I have the sum this evening, I owe it to a chance upon
which I could not have counted an hour ago; but by which I profited, at
the risk of compromising myself.
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