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Ch. 22: Technicalities Gem Trading

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XXII
Foundations of the Bridge: The Technicalities of Gem-Trading
T his chapter brings me almost to the end of my tale. My bridge of gems is complete. I have travelled over the stream from my years of opal to my years of Jade—from childhood to past middle age—from Vienna of the Old Emperor to China eternally the same. I think there are no more gems to symbolise the years that remain. As I write the threat of war hangs over London, a city wide open to the air attacks of an enemy. Putting off the ledgers, the corn-tongs, the balances, of the gem merchant, I put in my lapel the badge of the air warden and proceed to fit several hundreds of my fellow-citizens with gas-masks instead of with necklaces and rings. There is no gem for this stage of my life, when every day is itself a jewel hung on a brittle thread.
But I cannot stop here without giving you some idea of the procedures and customs of the trade, although I have already mentioned these here and there in passing. Something of the people, too, who deal in gems I must
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Ch. 23: High Priest Breastplate Page of 280 Ch. 22: Technicalities Gem Trading
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