The
'yellow water' are more esteemed among nations of darker skins; I
suppose that is the secret. Yes, I think if you send this necklace to
London, Wallingford, you will get six or eight hundred pounds for it."
"I shall never sell it, sir--at least, not as long as I can avoid it."
I saw that Emily looked at me, with an earnestness for which I could
not account.
"Not sell it!--" repealed her father--"Why, what in the name of
Neptune can _you_ do with such an ornament?"
"Keep it. It is strictly my own. I brought it up, from the bottom of
the sea, with my own hands; removed the pearls from what the editors
would call their 'native homes' myself, and I feel an interest in
them, that I never could feel in any ornament that was purchased."
"Still, this will prove rather an expensive taste. Pray, What interest
do you obtain for money, in your part of the world, Wallingford?"
"Six per cent., in New York, sir, perhaps, on the better sort of
permanent securities."
"And how much is sixty pounds sterling, when turned into dollars?"
"We usually say five for one, though it is not quite that; from two
hundred and eighty to two hundred and ninety, all things
considered--though two hundred and sixty-six, nominally, or
thereabouts."
"Well, even two hundred and sixty-six dollars a year, is a good deal
for a young man like you to pay, for the pleasure of saying he owns a
pearl necklace that he cannot use.
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