as fine work as ever I have seen, and I will offer you ten silver
crowns for it; which is a goodly sum for a sailor-lad to have in hand,
and more than all the other buyers in this town would bid you for it.'

'Tush, tush,' cried Elzevir, and I could hear the bitterness and
disappointment in his voice, however much he tried to hide it; 'we are
not come to beg for silver crowns, so keep them in your purse. And the
devil take this shining sham; we are well quit of it; there is a curse
upon the thing!' And with that he caught up the stone and flung it away
out of the window in his anger.

This brought the diamond-buyer to his feet in a moment. 'You fool, you
cursed fool!' he shrieked, 'are you come here to beard me? and when I say
the thing is worth ten silver crowns do you fling it to the winds?'

I had sprung forward with a half thought of catching Elzevir's arm; but
it was too late--the stone flew up in the air, caught the low rays of the
setting sun for a moment, and then fell among the flowers. I could not
see it as it fell, yet followed with my eyes the line in which it should
have fallen, and thought I saw a glimmer where it touched the earth. It
was only a flash or sparkle for an instant, just at the stem of that same
rushy red-flowered plant, and then nothing more to be seen; but as I
faced round I saw the little man's eyes turned that way too, and perhaps
he saw the flash as well as I.

'There's for your ten crowns!' said Elzevir. 'Let us be going, lad.' And
he took me by the arm and marched me out of the room and down the stairs.

'Go, and a blight on you!' says Mr. Aldobrand, his voice being not so
high as when he cried out last, but in his usual squeak; and then he
repeated, 'a blight on you,' just for a parting shot as we went through
the door.

We passed two more waiting-men on the stairs, but they said nothing to
us, and so we came to the street.

We walked along together for some time without a word, and then
Elzevir said, 'Cheer up, lad, cheer up. Thou saidst thyself thou
fearedst there was a curse on the thing, so now it is gone, maybe we
are well quit of it.'

Yet I could not say anything, being too much disappointed to find the
diamond was a sham, and bitterly cast down at the loss of all our hopes.
It was all very well to think there was a curse upon the stone so long as
we had it, and to feign that we were ready to part with it; but now it
was gone I knew that at heart I never wished to part