PEARLS.— MOTHER OF PEARL. 67 



dine, witli a womanly penchant for the dainty 

 and delicate, reverted to pearls, twirling the 

 while a ring upon her finger and displaying 

 the soft luster, the purity, and slight transpar- 

 ency of its pearly setting. " I have read," she 

 said, '' that Cleopatra once dissolved and drank 

 a pearl. In the story she was called very beau- 

 tiful, but I can not see how a woman so fool- 

 ish and vain could have been very beautiful." 



" Yet it is true," replied Dr. McLean ; 

 "her beauty and power to charm so influ- 

 enced rulers and wamors that it has been said 

 if Cleopatra's nose had been half an inch longer 

 (so spoiling her beauty) the history of the 

 world would have been different ! 



"Nevertheless science is not a little skep- 

 tical about the pearl which it is recorded she 

 dissolved and drank. It was one of a pair and 

 was valued at one hundred and fifty thousand 

 golden crowns. It is now affirmed upon excel- 

 lent authority that so large a pearl could not 

 have been dissolved except by means of a pow- 

 erful acid, and so large a quantity would have 

 been required that it could never have been 

 drank with impunity. 



" The mate to this pearl, so the authorities 

 say, was sawn in twain by order of the Em- 

 peror Severus and dedicated to Venus, being 



