'
The face of the young lady was an entrancing picture of animated
indignation as she gave utterance to this truism which her countrymen
are so slow to appreciate. I experienced a glow of satisfaction.
'Yes,' she went on, 'they sent down from London an army of stupid men,
who have kept our household in a state of abject terror for eight long
weeks, and where are the emeralds?'
As she suddenly asked this question, in the most Parisian of accents,
with a little outward spreading of the hand, a flash of the eye, and a
toss of the head, the united effect was something indescribable
through the limitations of the language I am compelled to use.
'Well, monsieur, your arrival has put to flight this tiresome brigade,
if, indeed, the word flight is not too airy a term to use towards a
company so elephantine, and I assure you a sigh of relief has gone up
from the whole household with the exception of my uncle. I said to him
at dinner tonight: "If Monsieur Valmont had been induced to take an
interest in the case at first, the jewels would have been in my
possession long before tonight."'
'Ah, my lady,' I protested, 'I fear you overrate my poor ability. It
is quite true that if I had been called in on the night of the
robbery, my chances of success would have been infinitely greater than
they are now.
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