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"These walls must have better ears than ordinary; for a family has moved in on the first floor recently, whose actions are extremely suspicious. But is this precious affair to be seen?" I took it from an inner pocket and displayed it, having discarded the shagreen case as inconvenient. "His Excellency must return as he came," said I. Hay's eyes sparkled.
Upon the table was placed a large case made of dark shagreen, similar to those that hold the silver plate exchanged as gifts among the rich and powerful.
"Then one has moods in which one leaves them off." "I have a ring in my pocket which I think belongs to you," said he. "Really? I don't know that any of my rings are missing." "Here it is," said he. He produced the little old shagreen case he had received from Lady Blanchemain, opened, and offered it. "It is a singularly beautiful ring," said she, her eyes admiring. "But it doesn't belong to me."
He wore by his side a light, slender dress-sword, in a green shagreen scabbard, with a richly ornamented hilt. His gait was deliberate, his manner solemn but self- possessed, and he presented, altogether, the most august human figure I had then or have since beheld.
The white silk flowered waistcoat, the bunch of gold seals below it, the claret-tinted velvet coat and breeches, the black silk clocked hose with gold buckles at ankle and knee, and a silver-hilted dress-sword in a green shagreen sheath, complete my picture.
He could distinguish amid the perfumes of the roses and heliotropes in the flower-stands, the sharp and fragrant odor of volatile salts, and he noticed in one of the chased cups on the mantle-piece the countess's smelling-bottle, taken from its shagreen case, and exclaimed in a tone of uneasiness, as he entered, "My dear mother, have you been ill during my absence?"
A fashionable jeweller made a fortune by the sale of mourning snuff-boxes, whereon the portrait of the young Queen, in a black frame of shagreen, gave rise to the pun: "Consolation in chagrin." All the fashions, and every article of dress, received names expressing the spirit of the moment.
"What a providence!" he murmured. He would arrive late; he would make his approach as ostensible as possible; he would apologize for his tardiness. His alibi would be perfect. During these proposed depravities Raikes had closed and fastened the door, seated himself at the table, and pressed the spring which detained the lid of the shagreen case. In a dazzling instant it flew open. "Ah!"
"However, since it would be a malice of which I am incapable not to gratify it, I will show you what it was I had in reserve," and the Sepoy produced the small shagreen case with which Raikes had been on such questionable terms of familiarity, and pressing back the lid revealed the splendid diamond to the still impassive Gratz.
Vainly are you a learned, grave writer, if you have not been born a story-teller, and you will never obtain the popularity of the Mysteries of Udolpho and the Shagreen Skin, the Arabian Nights, and Monsieur de Balzac. I have somewhere read that God created Adam, the nomenclator, saying to him: You are the story-teller. And what a story-teller! What verve and wit!
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