Oliver Bacon, a jeweller who has clawed his way from a back alley to the top of Bond Street, receives a visit from a duchess bearing pearls of uncertain provenance — and an offer he understands is really a trap of vanity and desire. In a few sharp pages, Virginia Woolf dissects class, ambition, and self-deception with the same precision she brought to her novels, compressed into one of her most quietly devastating short stories. A perfect introduction to Woolf's short fiction for readers who want her genius in miniature.
