Now, she had long been wanting two
diamonds like these to match her set; but owing to the unusual
shape and antiquated cutting of her own gems, she had never
been able to complete the necklet, at least without removing an
extravagant amount from a much larger stone of the first water.
The Scotch lassie's eyes caught Amelia's at the same time, and she
broke into a pretty smile of good-humoured amusement. "Taken in
another person, Dick, dear!" she exclaimed, in her breezy way,
turning to her husband. "Lady Vandrift is observing your diamond
sleeve-links."
"They're very fine gems," Amelia observed incautiously. (A most
unwise admission if she desired to buy them.)
But the pleasant little curate was too transparently simple a soul
to take advantage of her slip of judgment. "They _are_ good stones,"
he replied; "very good stones--considering. They're not diamonds
at all, to tell you the truth. They're best old-fashioned Oriental
paste. My great-grandfather bought them, after the siege of
Seringapatam, for a few rupees, from a Sepoy who had looted them
from Tippoo Sultan's palace. He thought, like you, he had got a good
thing. But it turned out, when they came to be examined by experts,
they were only paste--very wonderful paste; it is supposed they had
even imposed upon Tippoo himself, so fine is the imitation.
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