THE JEWELRY.
I have already said that Geneva is a very famous place for the
manufacture of watches and jewelry, and that almost every person who
goes there likes to buy some specimen of these manufactures as a
souvenir of their visit.
There is a great difference in ladies, in respect to the interest which
they take in dress and ornaments. Some greatly undervalue them, some
greatly overvalue them.
Some ladies, especially such as are of a very conscientious and
religious turn of mind, are apt to imagine that there is something wrong
in itself in wearing ornaments or in taking pleasure in them. But we
should remember that God himself has ornamented every thing in nature
that has not power to ornament itself. Look at the flowers, the fruits,
the birds, the fields, the butterflies, the insects; see how beautiful
they all are made by _ornaments_ with which God has embellished them.
God has not ornamented man, nor has he clothed him; but he has given him
the powers and faculties necessary to clothe and ornament himself. He
has provided him with the means, too, and with the means as much for the
one as for the other. There are cotton and flax which he can procure
from plants, and wool and fur from animals, for his clothing; and then
there are gold and silver in the earth, and rubies, emeralds, and
diamonds, for his ornaments; and if we are not to use them, what were
they made for?
They, therefore, seem to be in error who discard all ornaments, and
think that to wear them or to take pleasure in them is wrong.
But this, after all, is not the common failing. The danger is usually
altogether the other way. A great many ladies overvalue ornaments. They
seem to think of scarcely any thing else. They cannot have too many
rings, pins, bracelets, and jewels. They spend _all_ their surplus money
for these things, and even sometimes pinch themselves in comforts and
necessaries, to add to their already abundant supplies. This excessive
fondness for dress and articles for personal adornment is a mark of a
weak mind. It is seen most strongly in savages, and in people of the
lowest stages of refinement and cultivation. The opposite error, though
far less common, is equally an error; and though it is not the mark of
any weakness of the mind, it certainly denotes a degree of perversion in
some of the workings of it.
The morning after the return of our party to Geneva from their excursion
along the lake, they made their arrangements for leaving Geneva finally
on the following day.
"And now," said Mr. Holiday to his wife, "Geneva is a famous place for
ornaments and jewelry; and before we go, I think you had better go with
me to some of the shops, and buy something of that kind, as a souvenir
of your visit."
"Well," said Mrs. Holiday, "if you think it is best, we will. Only I
don't think much of ornaments and jewelry."
"I know you do not," said Mr. Holiday; "and that is the reason why I
think you had better buy some here."
Mrs. Holiday laughed. She thought it was rather a queer reason for
wishing her to buy a thing--that she did not care much about it.
Rollo was present during this conversation between his father and
mother, and listened to it; and when, finally, it was decided that his
mother should go to one or two of the shops in Geneva, to look at, and
perhaps purchase, some of the ornaments and jewelry, he wished to go
too.
"Why?" said his mother; "do _you_ wish to buy any of those things?"
Rollo said he did. He wished to buy some for presents.
"Have you got any money?" asked his father.
"Yes, sir, plenty," said Rollo.
Rollo was a very good manager in respect to his finances, and always
kept a good supply of cash on hand, laid up from his allowance, so as to
be provided in case of any sudden emergency like this.
So the party set out together, after breakfast, to look at the shops.
They knew the shops where jewelry was kept for sale by the display of
rings, pins, bracelets, and pretty little watches, that were put up at
the windows. They went into several of them. The shops were not large,
but the interior of them presented quite a peculiar aspect. There were
no goods of any kind, except those in the windows, to be seen, nor were
there even any shelves; but the three sides of the room were filled with
little drawers, extending from the floor to the ceiling. These drawers
were filled with jewelry of the richest and most costly description; and
thus, though there was nothing to be seen at first view, the value of
the merchandise ready to be displayed at a moment's notice was very
great.
In the centre of the room, in front of the drawers, were
counters--usually two, one on each side; and sometimes there was a table
besides. The table and the counters were elegantly made, of fine cabinet
work, and before them were placed handsome chairs and sofas, nicely
cushioned, so that the customers might sit at their ease, and examine
the ornaments which the shopkeeper showed them. The counters were of the
same height as the table, and there were drawers in them below, and also
in the table, like those along the sides of the room.
At the first shop where our party went in, two ladies, very showily
dressed, were sitting at a table, looking at a great variety of pins,
rings, and bracelets that the shopkeeper had placed before them. The
articles were contained in little rosewood and mahogany trays, lined
with velvet; and they looked very brilliant and beautiful as they lay,
each in its own little velvet nest.
The ladies looked up from the table, and gazed with a peculiar sort of
stare, well known among fashionable people of a certain sort, upon Mrs.
Holiday, as she came in. One of them put up a little eye glass to her
eye, in order to see her more distinctly. Mr. and Mrs. Holiday, followed
by Rollo, advanced and took their places on a sofa before one of the
counters. The ladies then continued their conversation, apparently
taking no notice of the new comers.
One of the ladies was holding a bracelet in her hand. She had already
two bracelets on each wrist, and ever so many rings on her fingers,
besides a large brooch in her collar, and a double gold chain to her
watch, with a great number of breloques and charms attached to it. She
seemed to be considering whether she should buy the bracelet that she
was holding in her hand or not.
"It certainly is a beauty," said she.
"Yes," said the other; "and if I were you, Almira, I would take it
without hesitating a moment. You can afford it just as well as not."
"It is so high!" said Almira, doubtingly, and holding up the bracelet,
so as to see the light reflected from the surfaces of the precious
stones.
"I don't think it is high at all," said her friend; "that is, for such
stones and such setting. A thousand francs, he says, and that is only
two hundred dollars. That is nothing at all for so rich a husband as
yours."
"I know," said Almira; "but then he always makes such wry faces if I buy
any thing that costs more than fifty or seventy-five dollars."
[Illustration: SHOPPING AT GENEVA.]
"I would not mind his wry faces at all," said her friend. "He does
not mean any thing by them. Depend upon it, he is as proud to see you
wear handsome things as any man, after he has once paid for them. Then,
besides, perhaps the man will take something off from the thousand
francs."
"I will ask him," said Almira.
So she called the shopman to her, and asked him in French whether he
could not take eight hundred francs for the bracelet.
She accosted him in French, for that is the language of Geneva; and the
two ladies had talked very freely to each other in English, supposing
that neither the shopkeeper nor the new party of customers would
understand what they were saying. But it happened that the shopkeeper
himself, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Holiday, understood English very well,
and thus he knew the meaning of all that the ladies had been saying; and
he was too well acquainted with human nature not to know that the end of
such a consultation and deliberation as that would be the purchase of
the bracelet, and was therefore not at all disposed to abate the price.
"No, madam," said he, speaking in French, and in a very polite and
obliging manner; "I cannot vary from the price I named at all. We are
obliged to adopt the system of having only one price here. Besides,
that bracelet could not possibly be afforded for less than a thousand
francs. Earlier in the season we asked twelve hundred francs for it; and
I assure you, madam, that it is a great bargain at a thousand."
After looking at the bracelet a little longer, and holding it up again
in different lights, and hearing her friend's solicitations that she
would purchase it repeated in various forms, Almira finally concluded to
take it.
It may seem, at first view, that Almira's friend evinced a great deal of
generosity in urging her thus to buy an ornament more rich and costly
than she could hope to purchase for herself; but her secret motive was
not a generous one at all. She wished to quote Almira's example to her
own husband, as a justification for her having bought a richer piece of
jewelry than he would otherwise have approved of.
"Mine only cost eight hundred francs," she was going to say; "and cousin
Almira bought one that cost a thousand."
In this way she hoped to exhibit to her husband that which he might
otherwise have regarded as foolish extravagance in the light of
self-denial and prudent economy.
In the mean time, while Almira and her friend had been making their
purchases at the table, another shopman had been displaying a great
many trays to Mrs. Holiday on one of the counters. The ornaments
contained in these trays were by no means as costly as those which had
been shown to the two ladies at the table; for Mrs. Holiday had said to
the shopman, as she came in, that she wished to see only some simple
pins and other ornaments worth from fifty to one hundred francs. They
were, however, just as pretty in Mrs. Holiday's opinion. Indeed, the
beauty of such ornaments as these seldom has any relation to the
costliness of them. This, however, constitutes no reason, in the opinion
of many ladies, why they should buy the less expensive ones; for with
these ladies it is the costliness of an ornament, rather than the beauty
of it, that constitutes its charm.
The two ladies paid for their purchases with gold coins which they took
from elegant gold-mounted porte-monnaies that they carried in their
hands, and then, with a dash and a flourish, went away.
Mrs. Holiday took up one after another of the ornaments before her, and
looked at them with a musing air and manner, that seemed to denote that
her thoughts were not upon them. She was thinking how erroneous an
estimate those ladies form of the comparative value of the different
sources of happiness within the reach of women who sacrifice the
confidence and love of their husbands to the possession of a pearl
necklace or a diamond pin.
Mrs. Holiday finally bought two ornaments, and Rollo bought two also.
Rollo's were small pins. They were very pretty indeed. One of them cost
twelve francs, and the other fifteen. His mother asked him whether he
was going to wear them himself.
"O, no, mother," said he; "I have bought them to give away."
His mother then asked him whom he was going to give them to. He laughed,
and said that that was a secret. He would tell her, however, he said,
whom one of them was for. It was for his cousin Lucy.
"And which of them is for her?" asked his mother.
"This one," said Rollo. So saying he showed his mother the one that cost
twelve francs.