"Why?"
"It cost enough to be handsome."
"How much did it cost?" asked the old lady, not without curiosity.
"Guess."
"I aint no judge of such things; I've only got this plain gold ring.
Yours has got some sort of a stone in it."
"That stone is a diamond, Aunt Deborah!"
"You don't say so! Let me look at it. It aint got no color. Looks
like glass."
"It's very expensive, though. How much do you think it cost?"
"Well, maybe five dollars."
"Five dollars!" ejaculated the young man. "Why, what can you be
thinking of, Aunt Deborah?"
"I shouldn't have guessed so much," said the old lady,
misunderstanding him, "only you said it was expensive."
"So it is. Five dollars would be nothing at all."
"You don't say it cost more?"
"A great deal more."
"Did it cost ten dollars?"
"More."
"Fifteen?"
"I see, aunt, you have no idea of the cost of diamond rings! You may
believe me or not, but that ring cost six hundred and fifty dollars."
"What!" almost screamed Aunt Deborah, letting fall her knitting in
her surprise.
"It's true."
"Six hundred and fifty dollars for a little piece of gold and glass!"
ejaculated the old lady.
"Diamond, aunt, not glass."
"Well, it don't look a bit better'n glass, and I do say," proceeded
Deborah, with energy, "that it's a sin and a shame to pay so much
money for a ring.
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