San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-04-30
THE JEWELLERS WIFE.

There dwelt years and years ago, in a
quaint old city on the banks of the Rhine,
a handsome young jeweler who loved his
gems so well that he thought them brighter
than any woman's eyes, and was impervi-
GUS to the smiles of the loveliest girls who
came to his shop to flirt with the propri
etor rather than for the sake of the broken
earrings and bracelets which made their
excuse for doing so.
II was known everywhere at last that
Max Rudolph did not intend to marry,
that his heart was given to his art-for he
was rather an artist in gems and gold than
a mere newfoundland as he was not only
handsome but charming, and reputed
rich, this was a very provoking fact in
deed to the young ladies who had cherished
hopes of winning his favor.
However the Turks are right when they
say that no man can escape his fate. One
day, going into the country for the sake of
the fresh air, and to enjoy himself with
rural dainties at little wayside tavern,
there happened to be detailed to wait upon
him beautiful young country girl so
sparklingly beautiful that he said to him
self: ''She has diamond eyes and ruby lips
and teeth of pearls. She is made of jewels"
Then there came into his mind the
thought that she was jewel herself well
worth the winning and wearing. Still,
she was but poor girl who earned her
bread as handmade at an inn, and he went
his way without doing more than to look
her. But he came again, and this time
threw her kiss; and again, and this time
the kiss was on her lips; and the third
time he said to himself that at last he had
found the woman he desired, and he wooed
and married her, and took her home with
him dressed in splendid garments, with
silken shoes upon her feet that had so often
followed the kline in wooden sabots.
For little while the jewelers. love ruled
his soul. He forgot his most precious
jewels for his fair Mina's sake, and happier
pair of married lovers never wandered to-
gether in the moonlight or vowed eternal
constancy by the winter fireside. 1t was
not long, however. In year the jeweler
had gone back to his old habits. He spent
hours in his workroom watching the pol
ishing of some rare stone. He would leave
his Nina for weeks together while he
sought some gem of which he had heard
He would sit and gloat over great dia
light might the better fall upon it, while
she sat unheeded.
Nina never reproached him with this
change; but she grew sad, and often wept
when no one observed her.
The husband never noticed it; his love of
Jewels had grown to be a monomania with
him. He had not the usual desire of crafts
men for fame or for wealth. He had be-
l. 4 4 e
gold. He refused to sell one of them at
any price. Men said that he was mad, and
that Satan in person had been seen stand
ing behind him whispering in his ear.
Still, he seemed to love his wife at times,
and to show it would bring jewels and lay
them in her lap, and tell her how to know
their value.
The simple woman admired them, but
she could not comprehend the power they
had over her husbands heart. And once
or twice she also thought. that she saw
figure, hideous, though shadowy, at her
husbands side, and cried out in terror.
She was now about to become mother,
and was full of strange fancies, as women
are, and the dark figure may have been
merely born of her imagination. But it
seemed to her to have the shape of Satan as
he is represented in the pictures that peas
ants see.
There was at this time talk of great
jewel, a ruby of wonderful size and brill
fancy such as no one had seen before.
None but king could be its owner, men
said, and there was great contest for it.
The handsome young jeweler with the
cleaning eyes and eager gestures who
gloated on its splendor-Max Rudolph
from Rhineland-was thought to be out Of
his mind when he declared It should be his.
But his it actually became
Who's be- cot all the money no one could