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12
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Gem Trader
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be blue one minute and milky white the next as I held it up to the light?
I
have seen many opals since, have handled the wonderful black opals
which confine in their depths lambent flames of scarlet, orange, blue;
and the harlequin opals-red and blue with maybe a flash of green, or
black and green, or any of half a dozen other combinations of
magnificent colour. But to express my feelings in beholding my first
love I have to use the word of a writer in the Gemological Review when
describing "The Flame Queen," an enormous Australian opal "of about
four inches across, the outer border of shot blue and green, and the
inner portion, curiously raised like a second layer, of a fine glow of
crimson. . . ." The word was "mysterious." It is a word no description
of opals ever omits. Whether the opal is insignificant or a queen among
gems, it embodies mystery, and in its unfathomable depths holds light
as a soothsayer's crystal holds the secrets of the future.
"It's
a lizard stone," I said, resting my chin on the table and gazing at the
opal. "/ think it's like a lizard stone." For I have often seen lizards
of just such fugitive colouring basking lazily in the sun on the
borders of the flowerbeds in the Augarten.
"Take your grubby hands off the table," said my mother, "and don't be stupid. Lizard stone!"
"It hasn't any faces like the amethyst," I said. "It's round. Why is it round, mother?"
"Because there's no need," said my mother. "Opal is always a domed stone, never faceted."
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