Mrs. Gainsborough's Diamonds, Chapters I-IV [pp. 430-442]

MRS. GAINSBORO UGH'S D AMONDS.
and seemed to care for nothing outside of his profession. He did not appear to me to be in the way of
making much money, and it occurred to me that it
might be acceptable were I, in an unobtrusive way,
to introduce him to some wealthy customers. I
knew few people in Paris; but there was a Mr.
Birchmore, an American gentleman, staying at my
hotel, with whom I had foregathered over a cup of
coffee and a cigar once or twice; he was a handsome,
middle-aged man, with an atmosphere of refined
affluence about him such as would have befitted a
duke. Not a bit like your traditional Yankee; in
fact, I'm not sure that I should have suspected him,
if I hadn't seen his address-" Fifth Avenue, New
York City, U. S. A."-in the hotel-register about a
week after my arrival. He was an agreeable man
enough, though not at all the sort to take liberties
with; however, I made up my mind that I would
get him to Rudolph's on the first pretext that offered.
Well, I had an excellent pretext before long.
Mr. Birchmore came into the cafe one afternoon,
with rather an annoyed look, and made some inquiries of the waiter. Frangois raised his eyebrows
and shrugged his shoulders; there was some further
conference, and then he and Mr. Birchmore began
searching about the floor of the room. It presently
transpired that he had lost a diamond out of his
ring, which had contained three matched brilliants.
It was nowhere to be found.
"I don't mind the loss of the stone itself," said
Mr. Birchmore, at last, sitting down near my table;
"but it's one of a set, matched with great difficulty,
and I'm afraid I may never replace it."
Here was my opportunity. I set forth the wisdom, skill, and resources, of my little Saxon friend
in glowing colors; mentioned the work he was doing
for me, and declared that, if any man in Europe
could help Mr. Birchmore to repair his loss, Rudolph was he. Mr. Birchmore at first paid little
heed to my representations; but finally I induced
him to accompany me to the Latin Quarter, and at
least make the attempt. The next morning, accordingly, we set forth; and, as we sauntered along the
wide, pleasant boulevards, our conversation became
more free and affable than it had been hitherto. I
found my companion could be exceedingly entertaining when he chose it, and had a vast fund of experience and adventure to draw upon. He had been
almost everywhere; he had made himself familiar
with all varieties of civilized and uncivilized men; as
a matter of course, too, he was a versatile linguist.
The only direction in which he gave any evidence of
comparative deficiency was in that of literature and
the fine arts. His life had been essentially an active
one; he cared little for Tennyson and Swinburne,
for Matthew Arnold and Carlyle. He had, however,
read and appreciated "Macbeth," and some other of
Shakespeare's plays; and he was well acquainted
with several of the romances of" Unabashed Defoe."
I did not discover all this in the course of that one
stroll over to the Latin Quarter, but it leaked out
during our subsequent acquaintance, which was des
tined to become more intimate and prolonged than I
had any idea of then. As I have intimated, Mr.
Birchmore was quite frank and open in his talk, except upon one topic-himself. Of his inner life and
circumstances I could learn nothing. Though he
never was obtrusively reticent, yet he contrived never
to refer to his own private affairs. I could not satisfy myself whether he were married or single, whether
he were a Catholic or atheist-hardly whether he
were rich or poor. Some shadow of grief, some incubus of fear or calamity, seemed to overwhelm him
and impose silence. The most I could do was to
draw inferences; and my inference was that he was
a bachelor, a millionaire, a skeptic, and a man who,
at some period of his life, had committed, either deliberately or by force of circumstances, a terrible
crime! You will see presently how far my estimate
was from the truth, or how near to it.
However, I am anticipating, as it is. We arrived
in due time at Rudolph's little shop, and I introduced him to Birchmore. I had previously told the
latter about my diamonds, and now I made Rudolph
produce them. The man of the world examined the
gems with evident interest, and with a knowledge of
their value and qualities which surprised me, and
caused the little jeweler to eye my friend with a
keenness that I took to indicate jealousy.
"These are all Indian stones," was Birchmore's
first remark. "There is not an American among
them-or, stay! What is this? neither an American
nor an Indian! An African, I declare, and one of
the finest I have seen!"
"Der Herr hat Recht!" muttered Rudolph, with
a glance at me. "Er versteht ja alles."
"You know German? He says what you don't
know about diamonds isn't worth knowing," I put in.
Birchmore nodded with a half smile.
"I ought to know something about precious
stones," he said. "I spent three years in a diamondmine, for one thing." He seemed on the point of
saying more, but checked himself, and went on scrutinizing the stones, most of which were already in
their new setting. "A costly parure that," he remarked, at length. "It wouldn't sell for a penny
under thirty thousand pounds."
"Five hundred and eighty-five thousand francs,
with the setting," replied Rudolph, to whom the words
had been addressed. "Monsieur's estimate would
have been correct, but that this stone here is a little
off color, and this one has a slight flaw, which is now
in part concealed by the setting."
"You travel under proper precautions, I trust?"
said Birchmore, after a pause, turning gravely to me.
" I know the confidence you young fellows have in
your courage and cleverness; but a dozen or a score
of thieves might conspire together for such a prize as
this, and against their skill and address no single man
would stand a chance. Ah! I know something of it.
I was robbed once."
"Do tell me about it!" I exclaimed, with an impulsive betrayal of interest that made me smile the
next moment.
"Another time," said he, shaking his head; and
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