"May I speak with you, sir?"
Algernon told him to follow in. The man was tall and large-featured, with an immense blank expression of face.
"I've come from Mr. Samuels, sir," he said, deferentially.
Mr. Samuels was Algernon's chief jeweller.
"Oh," Algernon remarked. "Well, I don't want anything; and let me say, I don't approve of this touting for custom. I thought Mr. Samuels was above it."
The man bowed. "My business is not that, sir. Ahem! I dare say you remember an opal you had from our house. It was set in a necklace."
"All right; I remember it, perfectly," said Algernon; cool, but not of the collected colour.
"The cost of it was fifty-five pounds, sir."
"Was it? Well, I've forgotten."
"We find that it has been pawned for five-and-twenty."