h the
character I had assumed. I wore instead a flat locket of pure gold,
containing a talisman from the Pontic fastnesses. I had kept my share of
our mountain trove of stolen jewels, not needing to part with any after
Falco bought me and unconcerned for the gems, as I now needed no such
store of savings. Now, suddenly, I felt uneasy about myself, my future and
my possessions. These jewels I therefore placed in Agathemer's keeping,
sure that they would be safer with him than with me and certain that he
could realize on them quickly and transmit to me promptly whatever sums I
might need.

I did all I could to rouse Falco from his lethargy and succeeded to some
extent. But, all through April and May, he went out little, accepted few
invitations and gave few dinners. Much of his time he spent among his
jewels, conning them, handling them, taking curios from their cases and,
as it were, caressing them. The rooms which held them were on the left
hand side of the peristyle on the upper floor, across the court from my
apartment and not precisely opposite it. There were three rooms; the
larger with a door on the gallery, and a smaller on either side of it,
opening from it and lit by windows towards the gallery. Each room had a
marble table in the middle, small and round in both side cabinets,
rectangular and large in the main room. Each of the three rooms was walled
with cases and shelves; on the shelves were displayed his larger curios,
vases, cameos, intaglios, plaques, murrhine bowls and such like; in the
cases were necklaces, bracelets, rings, seals and trays of unset gems of
all sorts and sizes. Here Falco spent hours each day, gloating over his
treasures.

"Phorbas," he said, "I am resolute never to buy another gem, equally
resolute to auction all I have whenever conditions make a profitable sale
probable. Yet, although I feel that I shall never live to see them
auctioned, the very thought of parting with them cuts me to the quick. I
am almost in tears to think of it. I love every piece I own. I hate to
think I must either live to see them sold or die and leave them. I cannot
be with them enough of my time. I could spend all my waking hours enjoying
their loveliness and my luck in owning them."

I thought this condition of mind positively unhealthy and consulted Galen.

"You are right," he said, "and you are wrong too. Your master is badly
shaken by the horrors of this appalling year, but he is not deranged nor,
at th