g, whose soiled glass
front revealed odds and ends of old jewelry, watches, optical goods
and bric-a-brac that had a sordid aspect. She had long ago noticed the
ancient sign disposed behind the panes. It bore the words:

"We buy Old Gold and Jewelry"

For a moment only she hesitated. Her breath came and went faster as if
a sudden pain had shot through her breast. But at once she entered the
place. From the back of the store a grubby, bearded, unclean old man
wearing a black skullcap looked at her keenly over the edge of his
spectacles.

"I--I want to sell a diamond," she told him, uneasily.

He stared at her again, studying her poor garb, noticing the gloveless
hands, appraising the worn garments she wore. He was rubbing thin
long-fingered hands together and shaking his head, in slow assent.

"We have to be very careful," his voice quavered. "We have to know the
people."

"Then I'll go, of course," she answered swiftly, "because you don't
know me."

The atmosphere of the place was inexpressibly distasteful to her and
the old man's manner was sneaking and suspicious. She felt that he
suspected her of being a thief. Her shaking hand was already on the
doorknob when he called her back, hurrying towards her.

"What's your hurry? Come back!" he called to her. "Of course I can't
take risks. There's cases when the goods ain't come by honest. But you
look all right. Anyway 't ain't no trouble to look over the stuff. Let
me see what you've got. There ain't another place in New York where
they pay such good prices."

She returned, hesitatingly, and handed to him a small worn case that
had once been covered with red morocco. He opened it, taking out the
ring and moving nearer the window, where he examined it carefully.

"Yes. It's a diamond all right," he admitted, paternally, as if he
thus conferred a great favor upon her. "But of course it's very old
and the mounting was done years and years ago, and it's worn awful
thin. Maybe a couple of dollars worth of gold, that's all."

"But the stone?" she asked, anxiously.

"One moment, just a moment, I'm looking at it," he replied, screwing a
magnifying glass in the socket of one of his eyes. "Diamonds are awful
hard to sell, nowadays--very hard, but let me look some more."

He was turning the thing around, estimating the depth of the gem and
studying the method of its cutting.

"Very old," he told her again. "They don't cut diamonds that way
now."

"It belonged to m