So he got these" she said. "In Seattle. They're clever, don't you think? They look very fine - just like the real thing. Of course I never saw any really valuable pearls."
" what did he get them for"
"don't you see? They were his crime. He wanted to remember what he had done, and what he had done it for, and all those long years that he spent paying for it. Hiding the pearls in the himself. And do you know - " Her eyes were shining, and spoke very slowly: " Sometime I think that in the end, he really believed they were the real pearls that he was hiding. Dose all this mean anything to you."
I looked down at the pearls. My hand closed over them slowly.
"I'm nothing special, Mrs. Sype. I guess that idea is a bit too hard for me. I think he was just trying to kid himself."
"Of couse, you would think that. But me - oh well, it doesn't matter much now. May I have them, to remember him with?"
"Have them?"
"The _ the phony pearls. Surely you don't-"