the jeweler
to raise his prices, for Capitana Tika still pinched her daughter
even after the latter was married.

"Here you have some old diamonds," explained the jeweler. "This ring
belonged to the Princess Lamballe and those earrings to one of Marie
Antoinette's ladies." They consisted of some beautiful solitaire
diamonds, as large as grains of corn, with somewhat bluish lights,
and pervaded with a severe elegance, as though they still reflected
in their sparkles the shuddering of the Reign of Terror.

"Those two earrings!" exclaimed Sinang, looking at her father and
instinctively covering the arm next to her mother.

"Something more ancient yet, something Roman," said Capitan Basilio
with a wink.

The pious Sister Penchang thought that with such a gift the Virgin of
Antipolo would be softened and grant her her most vehement desire:
for some time she had begged for a wonderful miracle to which her
name would be attached, so that her name might be immortalized on
earth and she then ascend into heaven, like the Capitana Ines of the
curates. She inquired the price and Simoun asked three thousand pesos,
which made the good woman cross herself--_'Susmariosep!_

Simoun now exposed the third tray, which was filled with watches,
cigar- and match-cases decorated with the rarest enamels, reliquaries
set with diamonds and containing the most elegant miniatures.

The fourth tray, containing loose gems, stirred a murmur of
admiration. Sinang again clucked with her tongue, her mother again
pinched her, although at the same time herself emitting a _'Susmaria_
of wonder.

No one there had ever before seen so much wealth. In that chest lined
with dark-blue velvet, arranged in trays, were the wonders of the
_Arabian Nights,_ the dreams of Oriental fantasies. Diamonds as large
as peas glittered there, throwing out attractive rays as if they were
about to melt or burn with all the hues of the spectrum; emeralds from
Peru, of varied forms and shapes; rubies from India, red as drops of
blood; sapphires from Ceylon, blue and white; turquoises from Persia;
Oriental pearls, some rosy, some lead-colored, others black. Those
who have at night seen a great rocket burst in the azure darkness of
the sky into thousands of colored lights, so bright that they make
the eternal stars look dim, can imagine the aspect the tray presented.

As if to increase the admiration of the beholders, Simoun took the
stones out with his tapering brown finge