Quelch stepped into the garden, too. The slow music of his voice as he gathered up the stones and let them fall from his fingers to hers was for her alone, and became part of the glamour and the dream. One exquisite thing, the colour of a dog-rose and radiating a thousand minute roses of fire, fell into the pearly pinkness of her palm and nestled there.
“As if it wishes to stay,” said Quelch. “As if it knows that for such hands diamonds are sought and found.”
The words were spoken musingly and very low. Loree heard them, but they did not disturb her. The spell of diamonds was on her. The garden had turned into enchanted woods, and Pan was fluting there.
When they were leaving the building some minutes later, they met a man who stopped Quelch and showed him something he had picked up. Loree recognised it, for already her eye had learned to discern a diamond in the rough. Quelch gave a glance and handed it back.
“Worth about a hundred and seventy,” he said carelessly.
“What was it? Where did he find it?” asked Mrs Cork eagerly, as they passed on.
“A seven-carat diamond. He found it in the street close by, and is going to hand it in.”
“But may one not keep a diamond if one finds it?” asked Loree wistfully. He smiled at her ignorance.
“I’m afraid not, Mrs Temple. Findings are not keepings here. Every stone within a large radius is the property of the De Beers Company.”
“How strange!” she sighed. “One would think that what is lying loose in the world would be every one’s property?”