But not behind me. I shut it on the street and--Mag, I shut for ever
another door, too; the old door that opens out on Crooked Street. With
my hand on my heart, that was beating as though it would burst, I flew
back again through the black corridor, through the wings and out to
Obermuller's office. With both my hands I ripped open the neck of my
dress, and, pulling the chain with that great diamond hanging to it, I
broke it with a tug, and threw the whole thing down on the desk in
front of him.
"For God's sake!" I yelled. "Don't make it so easy for me to steal!"
I don't know what happened for a minute. I could see his face change
half a dozen ways in as many seconds. He took it up in his fingers at
last. It swung there at the end of the slender little broken chain
like a great drop of shining water, blushing and sparkling and
trembling.
His hands trembled, too, and he looked up at last from the diamond to
my face.
"It's worth at least fifty thousand, you know--valued at that."