This other one, from the mines of Golconda, weighs three and a half carats and is worth over seventy thousand.

The Viceroy of India, in a letter I received the day before yesterday, offers me twelve thousand pounds sterling for it." Before such great wealth, all under the power of that man who talked so unaffectedly, the spectators felt a kind of awe mingled with dread.

Sinang clucked several times and her mother did not pinch her, perhaps because she too was overcome, or perhaps because she reflected that a jeweler like Simoun was not going to try to gain five pesos more or less as a result of an exclamation more or less indiscreet.

All gazed at the gems, but no one showed any desire to handle them, they were so awe-inspiring.

Curiosity was blunted by wonder.