FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   >>   >|  
d she told this to her mistress out of sheer garrulousness. "But if no one found out," said Lady Harman, "how do you know?" "Not till her death, me lady," said Peters, brushing, "when all things are revealed. Her husband, they say, made it a present of to another lady and the other lady, me lady, had it valued...." Once the idea had got into Lady Harman's head it stayed there very obstinately. She surveyed the things on the table before her with a slightly lifted eyebrow. At first she thought the idea of disposing of them an entirely dishonourable idea, and if she couldn't get it out of her head again at least she made it stand in a corner. And while it stood in a corner she began putting a price for the first time in her life first upon this coruscating object and then that. Then somehow she found herself thinking more and more whether among all these glittering possessions there wasn't something that she might fairly regard as absolutely her own. There were for example her engagement ring and, still more debateable, certain other pre-nuptial trinkets Sir Isaac had given her. Then there were things given her on her successive birthdays. A birthday present of all presents is surely one's very own? But selling is an extreme exercise of ownership. Since those early schooldays when she had carried on an unprofitable traffic in stamps she had never sold anything--unless we are to reckon that for once and for all she had sold herself. Concurrently with these insidious speculations Lady Harman found herself trying to imagine how one sold jewels. She tried to sound Peters by taking up the story of the necklace again. But Peters was uninforming. "But where," asked Lady Harman, "could such a thing be done?" "There are places, me lady," said Peters. "But where?" "In the West End, me lady. The West End is full of places--for things of that sort. There's scarcely anything you can't do there, me lady--if only you know how." That was really all that Peters could impart. "How _does_ one sell jewels?" Lady Harman became so interested in this side of her perplexities that she did a little lose sight of those subtler problems of integrity that had at first engaged her. Do jewellers buy jewels as well as sell them? And then it came into her head that there were such things as pawnshops. By the time she had thought about pawnshops and tried to imagine one, her original complete veto upon any idea of selling had got lost t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Peters
 

Harman

 

things

 

jewels

 

imagine

 
selling
 
corner
 

places

 
thought
 

present


pawnshops

 

necklace

 
taking
 

speculations

 
stamps
 

traffic

 
carried
 
unprofitable
 

complete

 

original


Concurrently

 

insidious

 

reckon

 

engaged

 

perplexities

 

scarcely

 

interested

 

schooldays

 

impart

 

integrity


jewellers

 
problems
 

subtler

 

uninforming

 

lifted

 
eyebrow
 

slightly

 
obstinately
 

surveyed

 
disposing

dishonourable
 

couldn

 
stayed
 
garrulousness
 

mistress

 

brushing

 
valued
 

husband

 
revealed
 

putting