gown, which fitted me well enough. I put on the slippers, and tied
the green ribbons round and round my ankles; then I lighted all the
candles, and looked at myself. A perfect guy? Well, perhaps--and
yet--

At this moment Jessop entered, bringing a pair of yellow gloves; she
looked me over critically, saying nothing; glanced at the portrait,
withdrew, and presently reappeared, with the high tortoise-shell
comb in her hand. She placed it carefully in my hair, surveyed me
again, and again looked at the picture. Yes, it was true, the
necklace was wanting; but of course--

Really, Jessop was behaving like a jack-in-the-box! She had
disappeared again, and now here she was for the third time; but this
time Madam Le Baron was with her. The old lady looked at me silently,
at my hair, then up at the picture. The sight of the pleasure in her
lovely face trampled under foot, put out of existence, the last
remnant of my foolish pride.

She turned to Jessop and nodded. "Yes, by all means!" she said. The
maid put into her hand a long morocco box; Madam kissed me, and with
soft, trembling fingers clasped the necklace round my neck.
"It is a graceful compliment you pay me, my child," she said,
glancing at the picture again, with eyes a little dimmed. "Oblige me
by wearing this, to complete the vision of my past youth."

Ten stars of chrysoprase, the purest and tenderest green in the world,
set in delicately wrought gold. I need not describe the necklace to
you. You think it the most beautiful jewel in the world, and so do I;
and I have promised that you shall wear it on your eighteenth