I may here state that it is a bright green, grained with black, and is a stone which takes on a good polish.
Among the number of less well known semi-precious stones which at one period kept the family pot boiling was the peridot.
I
must confess here that although I had long known the stone by name and
had seen it included in lists of potential gem material, I was not at
all acquainted with its ap-1 pearance until some time in
1903 when a German lapidary paid me a visit. I had been recommended to
him as one likely to prove of considerable assistance to him, but to my
disappointment he revealed that his entire stock-in-trade consisted of
peridots, several pounds weight of them, of every size and shape.
"And what do you expect to do with a stock of that kind in London?" I asked.
"Sell
it for good English money," he replied with an assurance that was
rather disconcerting, for I had no doubt whatsoever that a German
lapidary on his first visit to London had nothing to teach me about the
class of gems saleable in that city.
"I am sorry to disillusion you," I said, "but candidly we shall only be wasting our time."
"Before the day is out you will think differently," he replied. "Will you be my broker for the day?"
As
my new acquaintance was a good-natured twenty-one stone Teuton with a
single-track mind, I did not wish him to feel that he must return to
Germany without having had at least a chance of showing his goods to
the
