The Duchess and the Jeweller

"The Duchess and the Jeweller" (1938) is a short story by Virginia Woolf. Woolf, being an advocate of addressing the "stream of consciousness," shows the thoughts and actions of a greedy jeweller; Woolf makes a thematic point that corrupt people do corrupt actions for purely selfish motives (and often without regret). It was first published in British Harper's Bazaar Magazine in April 1938 and subsequently published posthumously in 1944 in the collection A Haunted House and Other Short Stories.