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206
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Gem Trader
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misfortune. It is better to make no gifts at all than such stones."
Finally
I had brought out everything I had. But she remained petulant. If one
stone was too thick another was too flat, a third had not sufficient
fire to warm her into buying, and yet others must be rejected on the
score of shape or tint. Nothing seemed to be right. Patience? Yes, I
had plenty of that commodity and displayed stone after stone with the
best of grace. But no! she knew what she wanted—that she would have or nothing at all.
Well,
I dearly love clients who know what they want. It relieves me of great
responsibility and much work. Obviously, I had nothing in my collection
that was in the least desirable in her eyes. So I packed up in
readiness to take my departure and would perhaps have been allowed to
go forthwith but that I happened to look up and found her gaze riveted
upon one particular wallet of the four —the very one into which I had
thrust the paper containing the offending black-spotted stone which
had earned her little lecture.
Was
I right in suspecting that she might want that stone, after all, and
that she was only restrained from asking to see it again by the remarks
she had made? She could not lose face, and I, for my part, could not
presume to exhibit the stone again. I would thus lose a sale and she
would have to go without the very piece she wanted. What was to be done?
At
that moment the unexpected happened. The old lady rose from her chair
and turned her back upon us, in order to pick up from a table behind
her the dish of sectioned fruit of which we were to partake by way of
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