The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-08-20


my eccentric old friend, Francis Brewer,
to make him necklace of green dia-
monds. 1t was the I'd of May in the
year 1890, exactly three days after his
marriage with the fascinating little
singer, Eugene Clarville, who had set
Paris aflame with the piquancy of her
acting and her delightful command of a
fifth-rate voice some six months after
Brewer had left London to take UP the
management of great banking enter
prise in the French capital. He was then
well into the forties; but he had skipped
thru life with scarce jostle against the
venial sins, and was as ignorant as
babe where that mortal septette of vices
which the clergy mathematics on the
first Wednesday in Lent was concerned
have never known a more childish man,
or one who held your affection so readily
with simplicity. He was large-hearted.
trusting, boyish, by no means unintel-
lectual, and IN no sense fool. Indeed,
his commercial knowledge was highly
valuable; and his energy in working up a
business was q reproach to those who,
like myself, love to sit in armchairs and
watch the ebb Of life from q plate glass
window
When he was married he wrote to me,
and laid his letter upon my table with
whistle. Not that he was in any way
suited for the celibate state. for his in
stinct was wholly cast in the marrying
mold. Had / been called upon to paint
him. I should have sat him in armchair
by the side Of O roaring fire. with a glass
of punch to toast a buxom goodwife, and
a pipe as long as the stick Of my umbrella
to make rings Of smoke for a new genera
ton at his knee. Such man should, said
common sense, have been yoked to an
English dame, to one used to the odor Of
the lemon, and motherly by instinct and
by training. could not imagine him mar
red to lady from the vaudeville; the
contrast between his iron-headed direct
ness and the gauze and tinsel Of opera
bouffe seemed grotesque almost to in
Credulity. Yet there was the letter, and
there were his absurd rawlings about q
woman he had known distantly for six
months, and intimately for three days.
IT have married" he said In this mem
orable communication, 1.-The dearest little
soul that God ever brought into the world
fresh as the breeze bright as the sky,
eyes like the night, and temper like an
angel You must come and see her, old
boy. the moment we set foot in our house
at Villemomble. 1 shant let you lose
an hour; you must learn for yourself what
a magnificent Benedict I make. Why,
the days go like flashes Of the
sun-and there never was a hap
pier man in or out Of this jolly city.
Oh. you slow-goers in London, you poor
lame cab-horses, what do you know OF
life or of woman, or even of the sky
above your Come to Paris, old man
come. I say, and we'll put you thru your
PAGES, and you shall meet her, the very
best little wife that ever fell to an ole
dray-horse in this fair Of h-steppers.
There was good deal more of this
sort Of thing; but the kernel Of the let
ter was In the postscriptum, was the
IF Of MI mi a IN G
He told me there that he desired to make
some substantial present tH the girl HI
had just married: and he enclosed a rough
sketch Of necklace which he though
would be q pretty thing II rare stone:
were used to decorate 1t. I fell in will
his within at once; and it CHANGED tina
had just received from the Jagersfonteir
mine a parcel Of twenty very fine green
tsh diamonds, I determined to use then
in the business. I may say that thes'
stones were of a delicious pale green tint
almost the color Of the great jewel in tn
vaults at Dresden, and that their fire wa
amazing. I have known q gem Of tn
hue to be worth nearly a thousand pound
carat; and as the lot I had average
two carats apiece, their worth was Yer
considerable had not learnt what wer
Brewster's instructions in the matter Q
expense; but I wrote to him by the mex
post congratulating him on his marriag
and informing him that I would set tn
them for two thousand pounds. He &C
cepted the offer by a cablegram, and O
the following day sent long letter Of in
struction, the pith Of which was the OF
der to engrave on the inner side Of tn
pendant the words, major lex amor o:
nobis. I laughed at his Latin, and tn
amatory exuberance which it betrayed
but fell upon the work, and finished it
the course of three weeks, during wh1c
time I had many and Irritating request
from him for constant and detailed &C
counts of its progress.
When the trinket reached him. his sal
isfaction was quito childish. He wrot
of his delight, and Of "Eugy's," and spoi
three sheets of good note-paper tellin
me of her appearance at the English ba
early In June; and Of the sensation sue
an extraordinary bauble caused. Then
heard from him no more until Angus
when I read In an evening paper that
had been returning from Veluettes after
short holiday and had been in a great tra1
smash near Rouen. A later telegram gay
a list of the dead, in which was the nan
of his wife; and three days after I RI
ceived from him the most pitiful lett
that it has ever been my misfortune
read. The whole wounded soul of tt
man seemed laid bare upon the paper; tt
simplicity Of his words was so touchir
and so expressive of his agony, that
could scarce trust myself to go thru II
long pages over which he let his sorro
flow. Yet one paragraph remained lol
in my mind, for 1t was one that recallt
the necklace Of green diamonds, and
was so astonishing that did not dou
that Brewer was for the time at any rat
/ on the high-road to madness. II have p
them round her dear neck" he said, "a1
/ they shall cling always to her IN
long sleep"
At the end of the month he wro
again, mentioning that, despite my sha1
remonstrance, he had seen the jewe
\ buried with her, and that his heart W;
broken. He said that he thought of con
ing to stay with me, and Of retiring fro
business; but went on in the next par'
graph to confess his inability to leave tt
city in which she was buried, and Il
places which kept her memory so sharp
before him. I wrote an answer, advisil
him to plunge into work as an antido
to great, and had posted it but an no
when the mystery Of the green diamol
necklace began.
The circumstances were these. n
clerk had left with the letters, and I w
sitting at my table examining q few IL
usually large cat's-eyes which had be-
j offered to me that morning. I heard t
shop door open and saw from the SINS
window near my desk a man in
coat who seemed in something of hur
4 when he went to the counter. Three mi
4 utes afterward Michel came up to I
a breathlessly and stammering. He CARR
in his hand the Identical necklace viii
had made for my friend Brewer a