If she was in trouble,
let her go to her own people.
He took out the letter, and dropped it into the midst of the burning logs
before him. Then he turned to a heap of sale catalogues lying near him,
and after going through them, he rose, and as though drawn to it by a
magnetic power, he went to the Riesener table, and unlocked the drawer
which held the gems.
Bringing them back to the fireside he watched the play of the flames on
their shining surfaces, delighting greedily in their beauty; in the long
history attaching to each one of them, every detail of which he knew; in
the sense of their uniqueness. Nothing like them of their kind, anywhere;
and there they were in his hand, after these years of fruitless coveting.
He had often made Mackworth offers for them; and Mackworth had laughed at
him.
Well, he had bid high enough this time, not for the gems themselves, but
for the chance of some day persuading their owner to entertain the notion
of selling them. It pleased him to guess at what had been probably
Faversham's secret expectation that morning of a proposal for them; and
to think that he had baffled it.
He might, of course, have made some quite preposterous offer which would
have forced the young man's hand. But that might have meant, probably
would have meant, the prompt departure of the enriched Faversham. But he
wanted both Faversham and the gems; as much as possible--that is, for his
money. The thought of returning to his former solitariness was rapidly
becoming intolerable to him.
Pages:
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208