"To Marie Antoinette?" repeated Mona, breathlessly, "to the Queen of
France? and would you give it to me--_me_, Uncle Walter?"

"Yes, I have kept it for you many years, dear," the man answered, but
turning away from her eager, delighted eyes and glowing face, as if
something in them smote him with sudden pain.

"Oh! thank you, _thank_ you! It is a priceless gift. What can I say? How
can I show you how delighted I am?" Mona cried, eagerly.

"By simply accepting it and taking good care of it, and also by giving
me your promise that you will never part with it while you live," Mr.
Dinsmore gravely replied.

"Of _course_ I would never part with it," the young girl returned,
flushing. "The mere fact of your giving it to me would make it precious,
not to mention that it is a royal mirror and once belonged to that
beautiful but ill-fated queen. How did it happen to come into your
possession, Uncle Walter?"

The man grew pale at this question, but after a moment he replied, though
with visible effort:

"It was given to your great grandmother by a Madame Roquemaure, an
intimate friend, who was at one time a lady in waiting at the court of
Louis the Sixteenth."

"What was her name?" eagerly asked Mona--"my grandmother's, I mean."

"She was a French lady and her maiden name was Ternaux, and when her