The Placer herald., 1857-10-31
Exactly, monsieur" replied the lady,

|
But jewels are jewels. Surely, such stones
as these do not depreciate thus in value, by
lapse Of years."
After much more explanation and dsserta.
ton regarding the form and present value Of
precious stones, another examination by the
lapidary, and another conference between the
partners, it was agreed that they should allow
the lady forty thousand francs for the neck.
lace, which offer she at length reluctantly
consented to.
"And your price for the other?" asked the
stranger.
"Three thousand four hundred francs"
To this the lady assented.
"Would they have any objection to advanc-
ing the lady ten thousand francs upon the
basis of the trade nader
"None, whatever"
And so they parted the lady taking re-
ceipt for her diamond necklace, and cheque
for ten thousand francs on account while the
Messieurs H chuckled Justify over their
bargain. On their part, they also agreed to
have the imitation article ready within a
fortnight, and promised not to expose the
genuine necklace for sale for twelvemonth.
The visitor at any Of the best establish
ments of this character, in Paris, will be as
tonished at the magnificent display made;
and he will wonder more at the precision and
nicely which mark the degree of perfection
which has been reached in this art of imitat-
ing jewels Of every kind, of late years in
that city-the results of which battle the
scrutiny Of the most practised eye to detect
the difference between tho real and the false
even side by side.
immediately after tho purchase of the
necklace, to make assurance doublv sure
three or four of the most prominent Jewels
were removed from the setting, and upon
final testing were found to be diamonds OF
the first water. They were replaced. the
necklace was bestowed in the jewellers
strong box, and, at the appointed time, the
imitation article was completed Agreeaby
to promise, the lady called for it. She was
perfectly satisfied the counterfeit was the
full equal of the genuine! She had enter
tained no expectation that art could possibly
have reached this extraordinary degree of
perfection!
The jewellers were in ecstacics over their
success. The lady once more entered her
carriage with her diamonds 'most exquisitcy
coun;erfeited," and cheque for the balance
of her forty thousand francs-sincc which
time the accomplished imitators of precious
stones have never had the pleasure Of meet
ing with their ilust,ious but unfortunate"
patron. The sequel of this little business
affair remains yet to be told!
Such was the "dire necessity" of this &C.
complished lady in black, that she felt forced
to part with the ceunte1ttit presentment, also
forthwith! And selecting the establishment
of rival jeweller, she Immediately repaired
thither and offered the imitation nee klace
for sale. After examining it carefully, :he
opposition house offered her thirteen hundred
francs, only, for what she had just allowed
in account, thirty-four hundred francs. The
sale was made, and the lady re-entered her
carriage with an order to the coaL hman-
"To the Hotel du Lion d'Or?'
On the following day. the imitation neck
lace was ostentatiously displayed in the front
window of the rival house, where il was seen
by one of the firm in whose establishment it
was manufactured. Upon inquiry, it was
found to have been "purchased of an unfor-
tunate lady, whose adversely reluctantly COM
PEELED her to part with this beirloom," etc;
and upon further investigation, it came out
that it was the identical counterfeit which
the Messieurs H had so cunningly ex-
ecuted from the valuable original then in
their possession, in lieu of forty thousand
francs in good hard argent!
Suspicion was suddenly aroused. The ori-
ginal article was quickly brought out from
the strong box, and the glistening stones
were taken from their settings, one by one,
and individually they were subjected to
test, when it was discovered that only four
out Of nearly seventy stones were genuine,
the others being simply ''most excellent
deceptions!" The bona .fde value of the
Ediamond" necklace was in fact less than
fifteen thousand francs
The whole thing was but the ruse Of a
clever woman, who procured the original
necklace of manufacturer of jewels" in
Brussels; and the execution of the work had
been so exquistely nice, that Paris jewellers
had been utterly deceived, and swindled to
the tune of over five and twenty thousand
francs-thus affording them the benefit of
valuable lesson which they will not soon
forget. The "lady" has not since been heard
Of