“But it must have been a very remarkable function at which she could have wanted to wear such pearls as those. Parker said that I might not be able to wear them more than half a dozen times in my life; at an ordinary house they would seem too ridiculous.”
“Probably. But did you propose, Mrs. Van Groot, to wear them only half a dozen times in your life?”
“Not much! I told Parker that I’d wear them in the street and in shops, and just everywhere. I’m not selfish, I’m not; I meant to let everyone see the finest pearl necklace in the world.”
“I doubt if the function at which the Grand Duchess X. was to wear them was of much account, because here the scandal begins at that function they were stolen from her by a gentleman.”
“What kind of a gentleman was it who stole them?”
“He was the Gran
