`That is,' replied the jeweller, `I offered 40,000 francs.' -- `Forty thousand,' cried La Carconte; `we will not part with it for that sum.
-- `He was a foreigner?' -- `An Italian, from the neighborhood of Mantua, I believe.' -- `Let me see this diamond again,' replied the jeweller; `the first time you are often mistaken as to the value of a stone.' Caderousse took from his pocket a small case of black shagreen, opened, and gave it to the jeweller.
"The jeweller took the ring, and drawing from his pocket a pair of steel pliers and a small set of copper scales, he took the stone out of its setting, and weighed it carefully.
'That I was aware of,' is the
jeweller's reply, 'for Mr.
"I didn't mean as I thought so," said the husband, apologetically, "but I said it was what the jeweller might think, and so he wouldn't be offering much money for 'em."
"Oh yes, I'll be very glad if you'll give me that," said Hetty, relieved at the thought that she would not have to go to the jeweller's and be stared at and questioned.
I was recalled to this planet by a deluge of gems from the jeweller's bag.
"But I don't know you, gentlemen," the jeweller exclaimed.
"I wish you could, sir," the jeweller said, with feeling.
The noises that even I could hear below, with the exception of one metallic crash at the beginning, were indeed incredibly slight; but they ceased altogether at each double rap from my toe; and a policeman passed quite half a dozen times beneath my eyes, and the man whom I took to be the jeweller's watchman oftener still, during the better part of an hour that I spent at the window.
"Either a policeman," he muttered, "or a watchman that all these jewellers run between them.
All the
jewellers consulted, at once confirmed the Colonel's assertion that he possessed one of the largest diamonds in the world.
Those allied powers were considerably astonished, when they arrived within a few minutes of each other, to find an unknown lady of portentous appearance, sitting before the fire, with her bonnet tied over her left arm, stopping her ears with jewellers' cotton.
Chillip, looking mildly at my aunt with his head on one side, and making her a little bow, said, in allusion to the jewellers' cotton, as he softly touched his left ear:
Arrived at Paris, and resting there three days, Mr Dorrit strolled much about the streets alone, looking in at the shop-windows, and particularly the
jewellers' windows.
