LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1426, 10 September 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE JEWELLED CASKET.

[“Argosy.”]

{Concluded.)

‘ Out in the streets I managed at last to divert my thoughts from the one engrossing subject, and was chatting away merrily enough by the time we reached the auctioneer’s rooms, for my poor furniture had not been thought worthy of a sale all to itself, and had been removed there for convenienc ’, as the bills said.

* The sight of the place was not cheering, but Dick was waiting for us on the step, eager to tell us how the stranger of the night before had turned out to bo Mr Marshall’s brother, the great diamond merchant; and how he recognised him when he came into the office.

‘ And only think, Mary,’ he exclaimed, ‘ that bag contained diamonds worth ever so many hundreds of pounds. He had not had it out of his hands ail day, and cann't imagine how he came to put it down, unless it was in his surprise at what he thought was a little girl turning out to be such a blooming young lady. I be’ieve you have made a conquest, for he quite flushed up when I spoke of you. I shouldn’t wonder if he turns up here this afternoon, for when old Marshall told him all about that o d casket he said he should like—but time’s up aud I must be off

4 And away he went, leaving me in doubt as to what the unfinished sentence might mean, but with a plaesant consciousness that there was some chance of having some on* at hand on whose judgment and assistance I might rely in case of need. We were in pretty good ’ime, and took up our places at some distance from the auctioneer’s desk, t'Ut where wo should not be too far off to hear and see all that passed. I had never been at a sale before, aud at first was too frightened at the crowd of strange rudelooking men and women to feel any amusement from their eccent-iciues of fa :e and dress, but after a time my nervousness passed away, and 1 ventured to look about me, and began to wonder if the ‘ old corner’ was in this room, and whether, among tne many eager inquisitive faces, there was one belonging to the voice I remembered so well. 4 By the time the auctioneer was ready to begin I had surveyed all the corners pretty well, thinking that if I could but see au oM Jew station himself in one of them, I should then feel sure that my instinct had not been a v\ rong one, but that it was the stones of my cas‘<et about which so strong au opinion had been expressed. ‘ At first no one seemed to go into any owner, but to prowl about the room ; so for a time I gave up the search in despair. When I looked round again, the room had tilled considerably, but again I despaired. Every corner seemed to have its occupants, and occupants seemed all of the Hebrew descent.

* The sale began : as lot by lot sold, my spirits went up or down according to the price realised, and my mind strayed from the absorbing thoughts of the casket. All this time I was glancing again and again at the door, watching for the friendly face and figure which I had been so thankful to think might come. At last I thought I saw him, but another instant showed me my mistake. The new comer though very similar in height, was a much broader, bigger framed man altogether. Do gave a hurried glance round the room, and then proceeded to elbow his way slowly, but surely, through the crowd till he stopped beside au old oak press which stood against the wall, not two yards from me.

‘ .1 ust then a fresh lot was put up, a thing of little interest or value, but it caused me to look at the catalogue to sec how many lots would come In: fore the casket. Only two, and 1 felc my heart begin to throb wi’h expectation. Looking up, 1 saw the clock, above the auctioneer was just on the stroke of three, and instinctively I glanced at the door. And now I felt ay A everyone must luar the beating of my heart, as the casket was held up <or inspection, the auctioneer thinking it worthy of a little bit of an oration.

‘ It was, he said, au object of great antiquity, wich a very romantic history attached to it. He hoped he should not exhaust our

patience if he related a few facta connected with it.

‘ My heart almost stood still as I saw that the big man in the corner by the press had been joined by a wizened looking old Jew, with a dirty grey beaid and eyes like a ferret. The two were whis ering together, and the ey a of both were fixe 1 intently on the casket. My instinct had not been wrong; here w< re the ‘ voices of the mist,’ 15 it with tiie conviction came the necessity of rtsolving what to do. If they bid, and I were to bid against them, or get nu r se to do so, how sh ul 1 I know when to stop? If only Mr Marshall were here ! * For some time it really seemed as if I had summoned up courage for nothing, and that I must be mistaken. W ith the commencement of the bidding the interest of my neighbours seemed to cease, neither of them sho wing any eagerness or any intention of bidding.

‘ After awhile, however, I became conscious that the auctioneer’s eyes travelled frequently in the direction of the pair in the corner in an inquiring sort of way. These appeals ap eared to be unanswered, and at last the casket seemed in a fair way of being knocked down to nurse for seventeen pounds ten. It was a far higher price than 1 had counted on as I came up in coach, and I began to a'-k myself if 1 had been acting like a fool in lettinjf my fancy run away with my reasm, and was now buying iu the casket fur far more than its worth

‘ Another moment, and ray feelings underwent a sudden revulsion, for after almost allowing the hammer to fall, the old Jew at length slowly half closed his eyes, and with the auctioneer’s “Seventeen pounds fifteen, tha >k you,” I felt the battlepiad begun. Bid by bid the casket advanced to twenty pounds, other bidders having taken courage from the old Jew’s example. Then another pause, and then on and on until thirty pounds was reached. The auctioneer looked pleased, and tried hard to conceal his astonishment, whi e there was considerable animation among the assembled Hebrews. ‘But. at thirty pounds, nurse, who had rebelled once or twice before, tlatly refused to go on. “ I should be robbing you, child,” she said, “ and I won’t do it.”

‘ Again the hammer seemed about to descend, and I thought I could see a gleam of triumph in those ferrety eyes. Summoning all my resolution, I called out “Thir'ytwo.” The sound of my voice frightened me. The old man gave a rapid glance round the room to see who was his new opponent, and then as if to choke off all opposition re torted with ‘'Well, then, forty.” ‘ The words with which he thonght to frighten me gave me renewed courage. I could not he mistaken in the harsh grating tone. “ Forty live” I cried, and again the g-ating voice said, “Fifty.” ‘ 1 should only weary you if I were to tell you how we b'd on, how from fives we got to tens, and from tens to fifties Ino longer felt afraid of the sound of my own voice, though by this time every eye in the room was fixed upon us two all other bidding but ours having long ceased. ‘The auctioneer no longer attempted to conoi al his astonishment, but even in my excited state I could not help noticing that the casket was no longer permitted to be passed ab->ut the room as at first, and that the auctioneer’s men, as it were casually, so placed themselves as to keep a strict guard over it.

‘Nurse meanwhile sat as if stupefied, evidently wondering whether she was not dreaming. ‘ Vou will wonder how I could go on ; T, a girl of twenty ; conscious as I was of the angry looks of the old Jew and his friends, and of the insolent stare of the bystanders. ‘ At first the old man capped my bids before they were fairly out of my nr nth, but finding, I suppose, that he could not frighten me in that way, he change! his manner, and allowed the auctioneer, time after time, almost to let the hammer fall, as if in doubt whether he would bid again.

‘ S’o it went on. till from hundreds we got to thousands. By that time the Jew had lost his temper, and was again bringing out his bids like quick little snarls close upon the heels of mine ‘I had bid £2 800—how well I remember the amount, and the awful moment of suspense that followed it —when, after waiting a moment f r the Jew to bid, I turned instinctively towards him, and saw him deep in conversation with his companion, apparently quite regardless of the auctioneer’s repeated ‘ Two thousand eight hundred it’s against you, Mr Isaacs.’ ‘ That pause did more to unhinge me than ail the previous excitement, W hat if he should not bid again ! What if he had at last discovered the stones to be worthless, and I by going on too long had lost all. Again and again came the auctioneer's appeal; the Jew had apparently made up his mind not t o bid ; and 1 felt almost ready to faint I think 1 should have done so, but simultaneously with the fall of the hammer came the snarling voice of the old man with ‘ Three thousand ’

‘ t felt like one reprieved as the auctioneer’s ‘Only just iu time, Mr Isaacs,’ told me that the bid was not too late.

‘ You will hardly believe it, but with that knowledge came the desire to go on ; and before I imew what I was doing, the words ‘ Three thousand two hundred’ passed my lips. ‘ Again there was a pause and looking up I saw that the Jew’s c tmpanion had elbowed his way through the crowd, and was in earnest conversation with the auctioneer. ‘ Presently I was aware that the auctioneer was speaking to me, and asking if 1 could give such a reference as would assure him that he would be justiiied in receiving farther bids from me. ‘ I ivas struck dumb. Here then was the end of all my hope. In my utter bewilderment it never occurred to me that I had only to give my name and address, and call nurse to identify me as the actual owner of the casket, to bid as I liked, or even stop the saie if I desired it.

‘ You will hardly believe it, but it seems to me that 1 must have become so bewilder, d as actua'ly to have forgotten that the t rice of the casket, to whomsoever sold, would still be mine, and that the fear lest the Jew should get it for Jess than, its value had given place to a fear lest he should get it at ail. ‘The auctioneer spoke in a low voice and with nothing offensive in his manner, but the strain upon my faculties had been too great, and I burst into teais. Even as I did so, comfort returned A pleasant voice sounded in my ears, and my tall friend of the night before was quietly taking matters out of my hands satisfying the auctioneer as tn his own and my respectabili y, and leisurely scrutiuisiug the cadcet with the a;r of one who thoroughly understood what he was about. In another moment ho bad followed up by a further bid with an offer which electrified the room, and made even the old Jew open his eyes in astonishment, and the casket was knocked down to me for the sum of £500(1.

* ‘ I can get you fully £OOOO for the stones, and you can keep the casket it-elf,’ ho said, as we sat in the comfortable library at Hampstead some six weeks after. tie had brought me there, e nnpletely -worn out with excitement, ihe night of the sale, and while I was scut off to bed by the kind motherly soul in whose house I was never, after all. to be governess, he astonished her husband with mi account of my unexpected good fortune. H>w near I was to never euj lying that good fortune, and other goo 1 fortunes that w r as in store for mo, Heaven knows. For weeks after that night I lay on a bed of fever ; and at times the hopes of my ever rising from it again were but small.

Now, for tha first time as a convalescent had I been allowed t» see visitors, and to hear to what extent I was likely to be an heiress. Six thousand pounds—l, whose expectations, as 1 rode up to London, had looked upon one bund ed and fifty pounds as the utmost my belongings might realise ! And he had explained h >w he thought the jewels would be best realised, for real stones thej' proved to be, almost a 1 of them. ‘ ‘ But I cannot let you take all this trouble for nothing. Mr Marshall,’ 1 said. ‘'l don’t intend to work for nothing, I can assure you, he replied. ‘He kept his word. A few months after, when I was (juickly regaining strength under

my aunt’s care at Ipswich, I received a note from him to say that ho had paid into the London agents of the Ipswich Bank the sum of six thousand three hundred pounds. But the ma ter had needed a great many journeys to Ipswich and back to arrange, -o that I expressed a fear to my aunt that Mr Marshall had not repaid himself for his trouble, she only laughed, and said ‘ Tut, child, don’t pretend not to know how he wants you to repay him.’ ‘ Well, he was so good, and nice, and kind and everything that a man should be, and I felt bound to pay him iu the way he wished.

‘As to the jewels, as I have said, they wore almost all real; but not all; there were a few sham stones here and there. Whether it was that the goldsmith to whom my illfated ancestor had offered the stones had from some dishonest reason declared them false, or whether my ancestor himself had happened, by almost incredible mischance (looking almost like the finger of fate), to pick out only false atones, must remain for ever a mystery.”