DUPLICATE JEWELS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XV, 11 April 1896, Page 402

DUPLICATE JEWELS.

A correspondent, signing herself 1 Vera,’ writes to The Queen :—* The recent jewellery case has reminded me of an incident which occurred a few years ago, and which taught me how careful one should be not to come to hasty conclusions, especially regarding the identity of missing brooches. I was driving with a friend to a neighbouring country house, some miles distaut from home, where we intended spending a few nights. As we drove there, I observed that my friend wore a quaint little brooch in her bonnet strings, and on inquiry found that it had been once her grandmother’s property, and was probably of considerable antiquity, though of no special value. The pattern of the brooch was a simple one, consisting of a bar of gold with three fine opals set in it. At a certain point of the drive we alighted to walk a few hundred yards, so as to obtain a view of some fine waterfalls. The afternoon was sultry, and the flies and midges most annoying, so that we quickly returned to thecarriage, reachingour destination a few minutes later.

‘ Not long after our arrival my friend told me she had lost her brooch, and I sent word to our coachman to search the carriage for it. I also asked the footman and other servants to look about in the front hall and passages for it. To no avail. The brooch could not be found.

‘ A few nights later a servants’ ball took place in the house we were staying in, and in the course of the evening I entered into conversation with one of the upper women servants of the establishment. While doing so, my eye fell on the black lace fichu round her neck, which was fastened with a brooch exactly the same in size and pattern as that my friend had lost. Doubtless, thought I. one of the under servants has picked it up, and given it to this good woman to wear. ‘ This placed me in a position of some difficulty. Should I claim the brooch, or pass the matter by ? ‘ I decided on the latter course, for I felt that my friend would prefer to lose her brooch rather than incur the unpleasantness of casting a reflection on the honesty of our host’s old and trusted servant. Weeks passed by, and I was not surprised that the brooch was not found. However, I kept my own counsel in the matter.

' Late in the autumn of the same year, a party of guests at the same house we had been staying at visited the same waterfalls my friend and I had stopped to see. One of their number, an energetic gentleman, walked up a little side path whence a finer view could be obtained, and among the gravel and stones on the path he picked up a little brooch, which his host at once sent to my friend, and which proved to be the one she bad lost. She then recollected that she also had gone up this little side path to obtain a better view, and all the time kept whisking away the flies and midges with her handkerchief, doubtless also whisking the brooch out of the bonnet-strings. ‘Glad, indeed, was I that I had made no mention of my suspicions as to where the brooch was ; though, considering that I have never before or since seen a brooch like those two I noticed in my friend’s and the servant’s possession, I think I had a strong excuse for assuming the two to be identical.’