I
looked at it coolly, and put it down carelessly on the table. 'Would you
mind telling me, signor,' I said, 'how much my fellow-countryman offered
you for this?' 'Well,' he said, 'my wife says the man must be mad; he
said he would give me twenty lire for it.' "I looked at him quietly, and took up the gem and pretended to examine
it in the light more carefully; I turned it over and over, and finally
pulled out a magnifying glass from my pocket, and seemed to search every
line in the cutting with minutest scrutiny. 'My dear sir,' I said at
last, 'I am inclined to agree with Signora Melini. If this gem were
genuine, it would be worth some money; but as it happens to be a rather
bad forgery, it is not worth twenty centesimi. It was sophisticated, I
should imagine, some time in the last century, and by a very unskilful
hand.' 'Then we had better get rid of it,' said Melini. 'I never thought
it was worth anything myself. Of course I am sorry for the pedlar, but
one must let a man know his own trade. I shall tell him we will take the
twenty lire.' 'Excuse me,' I said, 'the man wants a lesson. It would be
a charity to give him one. Tell him that you will not take anything
under eighty lire, and I shall be much surprised if he does not close
with you at once. "A day or two later I heard that the English pedlar had gone away, after
debasing the minds of the country people with Birmingham art jewelry;
for I admit that the gold sleeve links like kidney beans, the silver
chains made apparently after the pattern of a dog-chain, and the initial
brooches, have always been heavy on my conscience. I cannot acquit
myself of having indirectly contributed to debauch the taste of a simple
folk; but I hope that the end I had in view may finally outbalance this
heavy charge. Soon afterwards, I paid a farewell visit at the Melinis,
and the signor informed me with an oily chuckle that the plan I had
suggested had been completely successful. I congratulated him on his
bargain, and went away after expressing a wish that heaven might send
many such pedlars in his path. "Nothing of interest occurred on my return journey. I had arranged that
Robbins was to meet me at a certain place on a certain day, and I went
to the appointment full of the coolest confidence; the gem had been
conquered, and I had only to reap the fruits of victory. I am sorry to
shake that trust in our common human nature which I am sure you possess,
but I am compelled to tell you that up to the present date I have never
set eyes on my man Robbins, or on the antique gem in his custody. I have
found out that he actually arrived in London, for he was seen three
days before my arrival in England by a pawnbroker of my acquaintance
consuming his favorite beverage, four ale, in the tavern where we met
to-night. Since then he has not been heard of. I hope you will now
pardon my curiosity as to the history and adventures of dark young men
with spectacles. You will, I am sure, feel for me in my position; the
savor of life has disappeared for me; it is a bitter thought that I have
rescued one of the most perfect and exquisite specimens of antique art
from the hands of ignorant, and indeed unscrupulous persons, only to
deliver it into the keeping of a man who is evidently utterly devoid of
the very elements of commercial morality." "My dear sir," said Dyson, "you will allow me to compliment you on your
style; your adventures have interested me exceedingly. But, forgive me,
you just now used the word morality; would not some persons take
exception to your own methods of business? I can conceive, myself, flaws
of a moral kind being found in the very original conception you have
described to me. I can imagine the Puritan shrinking in dismay from your
scheme, pronouncing it unscrupulous, nay, dishonest." Mr. Burton helped himself, very frankly, to some more whiskey. "Your scruples entertain me," he said. "Perhaps you have not gone very
deeply into these questions of ethics. I have been compelled to do so
myself, just as I was forced to master a simple system of book-keeping. Without book-keeping, and still more without a system of ethics, it is
impossible to conduct a business such as mine. But I assure you that I
am often profoundly saddened as I pass through the crowded streets and
watch the world at work by the thought of how few amongst all these
hurrying individuals, black hatted, well dressed, educated we may
presume sufficiently,--how few amongst them have any reasoned system of
morality. Even you have not weighed the question; although you study
life and affairs, and to a certain extent penetrate the veils and masks
of the comedy of man, even you judge by empty conventions, and the false
money which is allowed to pass current as sterling coin. Allow me to
play the part of Socrates; I shall teach you nothing that you do not
know. I shall merely lay aside the wrappings of prejudice and bad logic,
and show you the real image which you possess in your soul. Come then. Do you allow that happiness is anything?" "Certainly," said Dyson. "And happiness is desirable or undesirable?" "Desirable of course." "And what shall we call the man who gives happiness? Is he not a
philanthropist?" "I think so." "And such a person is praiseworthy, and the more praiseworthy in the
proportion of the persons whom he makes happy?" "By all means." "So that he who makes a whole nation happy, is praiseworthy in the
extreme, and the action by which he gives happiness is the highest
virtue?" "It appears so, O Burton," said Dyson, who found something very
exquisite in the character of his visitor. "Quite so; you find the several conclusions inevitable. Well, apply them
to the story I have told, you. I conferred happiness on myself by
obtaining (as I thought) possession of the gem; I conferred happiness on
the Melinis by getting them eighty lire instead of an object for which
they had not the slightest value, and I intended to confer happiness on
the whole British nation by selling the thing to the British Museum, to
say nothing of the happiness a profit of about nine thousand per cent
would have conferred on me. I assure you I regard Robbins as an
interferer with the cosmos and fair order of things. But that is
nothing; you perceive that I am an apostle of the very highest morality;
you have been forced to yield to argument." "There certainly seems a great deal in what you advance," said Dyson. "I
admit that I am a mere amateur of ethics, while you, as you say, have
brought the most acute scrutiny to bear on these perplexed and doubtful
questions. I can well understand your anxiety to meet the fallacious
Robbins, and I congratulate myself on the chance which has made us
acquainted. But you will pardon my seeming inhospitality, I see it is
half past eleven, and I think you mentioned a train." "A thousand thanks, Mr. Dyson, I have just time, I see. I will look you
up some evening if I may. Good-night." THE DECORATIVE IMAGINATION.