The Duchess and the Jeweller

The Duchess of Lambourne is an imposing presence. She forcefully impresses herself onto the rooms she enters, “filling the door, filling the room with the aroma, the prestige, the arrogance, the pomp, the pride of all the Dukes and Duchesses” (252). Taking command of the space, she carries herself with the self-assurance of her inherited privilege. Her presence is figuratively compared to a breaking “wave.” The Duchess’s clothes are sumptuous, but gaudy, conveyed in a riot of overwhelming detail including, “sparkling bright colours, green, rose, violet; and odours; and iridescences; and rays shooting from fingers, nodding from plumes, flashing from silk” (251). However, the Duchess’s grandiose air is undermined by the description of her as “very large, very fat, tightly girt in pink taffeta, and past her prime” (252). The “prestige, the arrogance, the pomp” with which she carries herself stems from an accident of birth meaning that her privilege is unearned and unmerited (252).

In her private interactions with Oliver, the Duchess discards the public persona of “her Grace.” She appears to show vulnerability as she cries, claiming to Oliver, “You have all my secrets” (252). However, the comparison of her tears to “diamonds” suggests a hard and brilliant quality to her show of distress. In persuading Oliver to buy the pearls, the Duchess reveals herself to be his match. Though from the upper classes, she too is wily and a worthy counterpart to the self-made Oliver.

Once the Duchess holds the signed check, her pompous public persona returns as she “open[s] all the flounces of the parasol, all the plumes of the peacock” (253). The narrator notes that “she held her honour—a Cheque for twenty thousand pounds with his signature—quite firmly in her hands” (253). The observation suggests the Duchess has exchanged her honor for a price.

Oliver’s love interests are more symbols than fully developed characters and are only mentioned briefly. Nevertheless, they reveal important aspects of things about Oliver’s character. Mademoiselle, a figure from Oliver’s past who features in his recollections, is one of these love interests. Despite this past intimacy, she is not given a name. Her French title, “mademoiselle,” suggests an unmarried woman. Oliver recalls her at his previous home in an attractive part of London outside of the city: “And he had a villa at Richmond, overlooking the river, with trellises of red roses; and Mademoiselle used to pick one every morning and stick it in his buttonhole” (249).

The repetition of picking the rose “every morning” and the intimacy of Mademoiselle placing it in his buttonhole suggests a loving relationship. She is associated with the riches of the natural world, the beauty of roses—typically a symbol of love—contrasting with the materialistic trappings of Oliver’s current life. Later in the story, Oliver’s observation of Spring leaves on a tree outside his office, reminds him of Mademoiselle’s marriage to Mr. Pedder. This suggests Oliver lost or rejected Mademoiselle in his unwavering ambition for social status. He has moved from the garden-like area of Richmond to the very center of London, exchanging nature for architecture, roses for riches. Mademoiselle, on the other hand, chose a husband of lower status than Oliver. Oliver betrays a touch of regret or loneliness when he reflects that “no one stuck roses in his buttonhole now” (250), which hints at the values he left behind in climbing the social ladder.