“Have you weighed it?”
“No, but I am quite sure it weighs over six carats.”
“Then you can lend the money on it?”
“I cannot command such a sum.”
“Can you tell me why the owner objects to the stone being taken out and put in at my expense?”
“No, I can’t; but he does object.”
“Then he may take his ring somewhere else.”
They went away, leaving me well pleased at my refusal, for it was plain that the stone was either false or had a false bottom.
I spent the rest of the day in writing letters and making a good supper, In the morning I was awoke by someone knocking at my door, and on my getting up to open it, what was my astonishment to find Mercy!
I let her in, and went back to bed, and asked her what she wanted with me so early in the morning. She sat down on the bed, and began to overwhelm me with apologies. I replied by asking her why, if it was her principle to fly at her lovers like a tiger, she had slept almost in the same room as myself.