"Well, Sir, in the trade, about a hundred and fifty, though I dare say
they cost three hundred. And the portrait is worth another hundred, if I
find on the back the marks I expect."

"You do not mean to say that you know the artist?" I could not help
exclaiming, though determined not to speak. "Oh, then, we shall find out
every thing!"

"Erema, you are a--well, you are a silly!" Major Hockin exclaimed, and
then colored with remembering that rather he should have let my lapse
pass. But the lapidary seemed to pay no attention, only to be calling
down to some one far below. "Now mind what you say," the Major whispered
to me, just as if he were the essence of discretion.

"The work-room is clear now," Mr. Handkin said; "the fellows were
delighted to get their afternoon. Now you see that I have to take off
this hoop, and there lies the difficulty. I could have taken out the
gold back, as I said, with very little trouble, by simply cutting it.
But the locket would never have been quite the same, though we put a
new back; and, more than that, the pressure of the tool might flaw
the enamel, or even crack the portrait, for the make of this thing is
peculiar. Now first I submit the rim or verge, without touching the
brilliants, mind you, to the action of a little preparation of my own--a
gentle but penetrative solvent. You are welcome to watch me; you will be
none the wiser; you are not in the trade, though the young lady looks as
if she would make a good polisher. Very well: if this were an ordinary
closure, with two flat surfaces meeting, the solvent would be absorbed
into the adhesion, expansion would take place, and there we have it. But
this is what we call a cyme-joint, a cohesion of two curved surfaces,
formed in a reflex curve which admits the solvent most reluctantly,
or, indeed, not at all, without too long application. For that, then,
another kind of process is needful, and we find it in frictional
heat applied most gradually and judiciously. For that I must have a
buff-leather wheel, whose revolutions are timed to a nicety, and that
wheel I only have in this room. Now you see why I sent the men away."

Though I watched his work with great interest, it is out of my power
to describe it now, and, moreover, it is not needful. Major Hockin,
according to his nature, grew quite restless and impatient, and even
went out for a walk, with his cane unpacked and unsheathed against
cabmen. But I was content to wait and watch