He requested her to walk into a private room, and placed a chair. She sat down and laid the jewels on the table. He examined them in silence, one after another, not speaking until he had gone through the whole. "What did you wish to borrow on them?" "As much as I can," replied Mrs. Dalrymple. "I thought about four hundred pounds." "Four hundred pounds!" echoed the pawnbroker. "Madam, they are not worth, for this purpose, more than a quarter of the money." She stared at him in astonishment. "They are real." "Oh yes. Otherwise, they would not, to us, be worth so many pence." "Many of them are new within twelve months," urged Selina. "Altogether, they cost more than five hundred pounds." "To buy. But they are not worth much to pledge. The fashion of these ornaments changes with every season: and that, for one thing, diminishes their value." "What could you lend me on them?" "One hundred pounds." "Absurd!" returned Mrs. Dalrymple, her cheeks flushing. "Why, that one set of amethysts alone cost more. I could not let them go for that. One hundred would be of no use to me." "Madam, it is entirely at your option, and I assure you I do not press it," he answered, with respectful courtesy. "We care little about taking these things in; so many are brought to us now, that our sales are glutted with them." "You will not be called upon to sell these. I shall redeem them." The jeweller did not answer. He could have told her that never an article, from a service of gold plate to a pair of boy's boots, was pledged to him yet, but it was quite sure to be redeemed--in intention. "Are you aware that a great many ladies, even of high degree, now wear false jewellery?" he resumed. "No, indeed," she returned. "Neither should I believe it." "Nevertheless, it is so. And the chief reason is the one I have just mentioned: that in the present day the rage for ornaments is so great, and the fashion of them so continually changing, that to be in the fashion, a lady must spend a fortune in ornaments alone. I give you my word, madam, that in the fashionable world a great deal of the jewellery now worn is false; though it may pass, there, unsuspected. And this fact deteriorates from the value of real stones, especially for the purpose of pledging." He began, as he spoke, to put the articles into their cases again, as if the negotiation were at an end. "Can you lend me two hundred pounds upon them?" asked Mrs. Dalrymple, after a blank pause. He shook his head. "I can advance you what I have stated, if you please; not a pound more. And I feel sure you will not be able to obtain more on them anywhere, madam, take them where you will."