Henry Bedford-Jones

Jewels Have a Long Life

Warsaw 2022

Contents

Jewels Have a Long Life

Jewels Have a Long Life

Are the things we love ever ours? The old Moor thought not: “I bought them! They were given me! They are mine!” he mocked. “Yet when you die–what? They are just so much gravel to you, then.”

WILL PAGET paused with his host and guide, Roger Waynflete, outside the little Leghorn shop.

“This is the place,” Waynflete said. “This man Hassan is the finest gem-cutter in Italy; but he’s a devious rogue, an agent of the Moors, an arrant rascal who’ll cheat you of your eyeteeth.”

Paget smiled. “You forget, Roger, that for these many years I’ve been a goldsmith and jewel merchant in London town. Lead on.”

Waynflete pushed into the shop and past the front attendant to the long workbench in the rear, where a man with clipped gray beard sat hunched above delicate tools and enlarging lenses great and small.

Waynflete spoke to him in Italian.

“Hassan, here’s a client, Messire Paget of London. He speaks French but no Italian. Well, Paget, this is Hassan the Lapidary. Shall I wait for you?”

“No, no, get back to your counting-house, Roger. Many thanks. I’ll find my way back to your house without any guide, when ready.”

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This is a free sample. Please purchase full version of the book to continue.