THE AUSTRIAN YELLOW. 237
by
that figure. The present selling price in London of a clear and
faultless cut diamond one carat in weight is one hundred dollars, one
of three carats therefore would be worth 3 x 3 x 100=$900.
Were
our advice asked with regard to the purchase of these valuable pebbles
whose history has so long occupied our attention, we should refer our
interlocutor to that Chinese philosopher who on being asked why he
kept bowing and saying, "Thank you, thank you," to the gem-bedecked
mandarin, replied:
"
I am thanking him for buying all those diamonds and undertaking the
trouble and anxiety of keeping them safe that I, undisturbed, may look
at them and admire them at my leisure."
