genuine diamond was lacking.

"Can it be possible that I have been duped, swindled?" he exclaimed, with
white lips and a sinking heart.

"I should say, rather, that you were attempting to dupe and swindle some
one else," sarcastically retorted the diamond dealer. "The stones are a
remarkably fine imitation, I am free to confess, and would easily deceive
a casual observer; but if you have ever tried and succeeded in this
clever game before, you are certainly caught this time."

"Mr. Arnold, I assure you that I am blameless in this matter--that
I honestly believed the jewels to be the same that I brought to you
yesterday," the young man said, with an earnest directness which
convinced the gentleman that he spoke the truth. "I see now," he
continued, "that they are not; and"--a feeling of faintness almost
overpowering him as he realized all that this experience would cost
him, aside from his pecuniary loss--"I have been outrageously deceived
and hoodwinked, for I have already advanced the sum you named to the
woman who wished to dispose of the diamonds."

Mr. Arnold searched the manly face before him, and was forced to believe
in the truth of his statements.

"If that is so, then you have indeed been wretchedly swindled," he said;
"for these crescents are but duplicates in paste of those I examined
yesterday. How did you happen to be so taken in?"

Mr. Cutler briefly related the circumstances, and when he concluded, Mr.
Arnold remarked: