Bella gave vent to a little laugh: she could not help it. One of Dick’s arms found its way round her waist. The situation was embarrassing. If she were to push him away, she might slip into the water. Their faces were not far apart. Suddenly she protruded hers and touched his cheek lightly with her lips. ‘Wretch! There, then!’ she said. ‘And there,’ quoth the unabashed suitor, as he returned the toll, twofold. ‘And _there_!’ she added a moment after, as, with her disengaged hand, she gave him a sounding box on the ear. Dick laughed and rubbed his ear. ‘For what we have just received’—— he said, and then grasping both her hands, he helped her across the remaining stepping-stones to the opposite bank of the stream. ARTIFICIAL JEWELS. The trade in artificial jewels has become very extensive during the last half-century, and the chemical experiments in which various qualities of imitation diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds are produced have been recently carried on with an astonishing amount of success. It is becoming more and more difficult, even to the eye of the expert, to distinguish readily between the real and the false gem, when they do not shine in too close proximity. The most distinctive feature of the real stone is its hardness, though even this quality has been imitated with considerable success. The term ‘hardness’ is used by the lapidary and mineralogist to denote the power of one stone to scratch another; it must not be considered as the power of resisting a blow, for many crystalline stones which are very hard are also easily fractured. The diamond, which will scratch any other stone, can be more easily broken than many stones which are less hard. After the diamond come the ruby and sapphire, which are the next hardest stones; then emeralds, topazes, and quartz or rock-crystal; and finally, a number of other stones, and glass or artificial stones. The beautiful ‘French paste’ which imitates the diamond so well, is a kind of glass into which a certain quantity of oxide of lead is introduced. The more lead it contains the more brilliant is the artificial stone; but the lead gives softness—so much so, that we have known such artificial gems to become, by friction with other harder substances, quite dull on the surface after being worn for some time. But the latest chemical experiments on the production of artificial stones for use in jewellery point very clearly to the fact that further success in this direction is likely to be forthcoming before long. The imitation of the natural gems by means of various silicates and oxides has already attained to a great degree of perfection, and no doubt this ingenious branch of industry must interfere considerably with the trade of the dealer in real precious stones. We can already purchase a capital ‘diamond’ for about half-a-crown; and the imitation of the ruby and the emerald is far easier, and more successful, than that of the diamond.