enough, every muscle of his hands and face sought also to express his thoughts.
I
had met this strange personage many years before at the office of a
well-known lapidary in London, to whom I had gone to consult about the
recutting of a noble emerald. But this little man, client like myself,
had presumed to break into our private conversation continually, had
taken up my emerald and criticized and assessed it,
and had altogether made himself a bit of a nuisance. I had, in fact,
come near to being rude. But the lapidary, smiling, had taken it all in
good part.
Finally
I had left the stone to be repolished and had hurried away. Within a
moment of having reached the street someone tapped me on the shoulder.
There stood the little man. He smiled on me, took my arm as though we
had known each other for years, and straightway plunged into a
discourse on gems.
I
could not get a word in edgewise. My opinion was not, however, being
sought, and it was obvious I could have nothing of value to impart to
him. We had come half the length of Oxford Street, and still he clung
to my arm. Presently he spoke of his own wonderful collection of gems:
of green diamonds and pink, of purple sapphires, mauve rubies, fiery
amethysts, and black opals orange-flamed. All, so he said, had been
presented to him by some king, prince, sultan or rajah.
"Nothing
but the best, the rarest, the most perfect, do I admit into my
collection," he boasted. I thought of the collection of stones I had
collected in my boyhood and which my father had confiscated. "If by
chance you come across something out of the way, something wonderful
and like nothing anyone else possesses, bring it to me—price no object."
"Well,"
I thought, "even if he is demented, he is just as happy as though he
really did own such a marvelous collection, and as though the great
ones of the earth really had given it to him and vied with each other
in the richness of their gifts. But it is high time he left me alone!"
Whether he guessed my thoughts or suddenly remembered a pressing engagement, he loosened his hold on my arm and
