dred
and eighty thousand dollars. One would like to know where the above
respectable merchant got the diamond, but unfortunately he seems not
to have furnished any history with it — perhaps because it might have
made him appear less respectable.
Four
years later the Sanci went to law. Prince Demidoff, it seems, agreed to
sell it to a Monsieur Levrat, director of Forges and Mines in the
Grisons, for one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and Monsieur
Levrat agreed to pay the price. Afterwards he contended that the
diamond had been spoiled by being re-cut, which was very likely, and
that it was worth only twenty-five thousand dollars. To this
remarkable reduction in price Prince Demidoff seems to have assented,
and he delivered over the stone to Monsieur Levrat who was to pay by
instalments. Instead of paying, he pawned the stone, and the defrauded
Prince sued him, won his case, and got back the diamond. This was all
the more lucky for the Demidoffs, since
