me
several pounds weight of agate beads, which any but a first-class
expert would have mistaken for high-grade Chinese Jade. Hy Lee was over
the moon with delight. There was henceforth no lack in his several
shops of tourist Jade, and everybody was happy. For ever after? I
doubt it. For sooner or later sundry purchasers would discover the
deception and clamour and lament would descend upon the head of Hy Lee
from every point of the compass.
But
to give Hy Lee due credit, I must say that he labelled his new Jade in
such a way that he could not be accused of wilful misrepresentation.
"Chinese Jade" is a term that has a definite meaning in the trade, just
as "sherry" and "port" have in the wine business, and it must not be
misused. Hy Lee called the goods he bought from me "Kong Li Tsa Jade",
which sounded very nice. How was the ardent tourist to know that Kong
Li Tsa is the Chinese rendering of my name?
Logically,
I suppose, I should here and now talk about the gem which goes by the
name of "Chinese Jade". But my order here is according to a private
chronology of my own. I beg you to wait until, in the course of events,
I am brought face to face with the East, and have come to know with
some intimacy the people who will yet, for another thousand years or
so, set the green yü above the diamond.
