Turquoises: Paris—London—Romance 59
a
mere onlooker. But I happened to know both the husband of Madame "X",
who was Monsieur "X", and the gypsy band leader, and in the end it was
I who . . . But that bit comes at the end.
Madame
"X" was the wife of a kind and unsuspecting husband who also happened
to be the inheritor of great possessions and of a treasure of fine
jewellery of fabulous price. Madame "X" therefore used to display a
fortune of concentrated wealth in her ears, on her bosom and fingers,
round her neck and wherever else it was possible to display jewels.
Thus it was natural that the gem experts of our set—and we were all
experts, we thought—always chose a table as near the lady as we could,
so as to feast our eyes on what we could never hope to possess.
It
was old Poldar who from the distance of three table-lengths could
appraise in detail the gems that Madame "X" happened to be wearing on
any given night. He assured me once that he had watched her every night
for a fortnight and had never seen the same jewel twice. It was he,
too, who told me that although the lady was infatuated with the tzigane
band leader, the band leader was more infatuated with the lady's
jewels, although she was a beautiful creature herself and a great
contrast to the gypsy's shrivelled Hungarian wife. The wife also was on
the scene, albeit half hidden behind a screen, guarding her husband's
street clothes.
Among
the gems which had particularly attracted old Poldar's interest were
two large pendant turquoise drops mounted as earrings. I had seen them,
too, several times, before realising that their size was unique and
their colour
