"But why should you be? Why should you have remembered me? You were a
young girl, then, as I say, and I already a man of middle age. You saw
me once, for perhaps two minutes. It would have been a miracle had I
remained in your memory for as long as a single day. Nevertheless, _I_
remembered."

"I am so glad to meet a friend of my father's, monsieur."

"And I to recall myself to his daughter. I have often wondered ...
Would you mind telling me something, Madame de Montalais?"

"If I can..."

"Your father and I entertained one passion in common, one which he was
better able than I to gratify, for good diamonds and emeralds. I have
often wondered what became of his collection. He had some superb
stones."

"I inherited them, monsieur."

"They did not find their way into Cottier's stock, then?"

The Comtesse de Lorgnes gave a gesture of excitement. "But what a
fortunate woman! You truly have those magnificent emeralds, those
almost matchless diamonds, of which one has heard--the Anstruther
collection?"

"I have them, Madame la Comtesse," said Eve with a smiling nod--"yes."

"But, one presumes, in Paris, in some impregnable strong-box."