“I am the luckiest girl in the world,” she said to Cornelia and her brother when this point had been decided.  They were tying up “dream-cake” for the wedding guests in madame’s queer, uncanny drawing-room as she spoke, and the words were yet on her lips when madame entered with a sandal wood box in her hands.

“Rem,” she said, “go with Cornelia into the dining-room a few minutes.  I have something to say to Arenta that concerns no one else.”

As soon as they were alone madame opened the box and upon a white velvet cushion lay the string of oriental pearls which Arenta on certain occasions had been permitted to wear.  Arenta’s eyes flashed with delight.  She had longed for them to complete her wedding costume, but having a very strong hope that her aunt would offer her this favour, she had resolved to wait for her generosity until the last hour.  Now she was going; to receive the reward of her prudent patience, and she said to herself, “How good it is to be discreet!” With an intense desire and interest she looked at the beautiful beads, but madame’s face was troubled and sombre, and she said almost reluctantly—­

“Arenta, I am going to make you an offer.  This necklace will be yours when I die, at any rate; but I think there is in your heart a wish to have it now.  Is this so?”

“Aunt, I should like—­oh, indeed I long to wear the beads at my marriage.  I shall only be half-dressed without them.”

“You shall wear the necklace.  And as you are going to what is left of the French Court, I will give it to you now, if the gift will be to your mind.”

“There is nothing that could be more to my mind, dear aunt.  I would rather have the necklace, than twice its money’s worth.  Thank you, aunt.  You always know what is in a young girl’s heart.”

“First, listen to what I say.  No woman of our family has escaped calamity of some kind, if they owned these beads.  My mother lost her husband the year she received them.  My Aunt Hildegarde lost her fortune as soon as they were hers.  As for myself, on the very day they became mine your Uncle Jacobus sailed away, and he has never come back.  Are you not afraid of such fatality?”

“No, I am not.  Things just happen that way.  What power can a few beads have over human life or happiness?  To say so, to think so, is foolishness.”

“I know not.  Yet I have heard that both pearls and opals have the power to attract to themselves the ill fortune of their wearers.  If they happen to be maiden pearls or gems that would be good; but would you wish to inherit the evil fortune of all the women who have possessed before you?”

“Poor pearls!  It is they who are the unfortunates.”

“Yes, but a time comes when they have taken all of misfortune they can take; then the pearls grow black and die, really die.  Yes, indeed!  I have seen dead pearls.  And if the necklace were of opals, when that time came for them the gems would lose their fire and colour, grow ashy grey, fall apart and become dust, nothing but dust.”