Page:Letters from India Vol 2.pdf/197

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like your pearls; were they worth as much as I gave for them—165l., not 170l.? Or were Nadir Shah and I taken in, and three shillings and sixpence the intrinsic value of both? I am glad you put them on to that diamond chain; they wanted length; then I think they will be beautiful. I have got a story to tell you about pearls, which may enhance the value of yours beyond calculation. There is a lady in Calcutta who has a large pearl—not so large as yours. That pearl twice a year produces other pearls. She has a whole string of its descendants—the eldest . larger and taller than the others; for all its children grow, as children should. It is a positive fact that, doubts having been thrown upon her statement, it is now in the custody of two scientific doctors, where it is to remain till its accouchement takes place; and it was brought by one of them with much carefulness and consideration to George, who was unkind and scornful about it, more particularly when some little bits of rice were pointed out to him in the box with it, which, it was asserted, had been nibbled by it and its young ones. In the meantime Dr. Drummond, our own particular doctor, believes the whole story. There is a