"I congratulate you, Mr. Libro, on your return to fortune," replied Steinman affably.
"I want to thank you, Steinman."
"Thank me! Why?"
"Because of the old book," said Libro, politely. "I sold it to-day for thirty thousand dollars!"
In a joyous mood John Libro called upon Ethel Edwards. The story of "the Shakespeare Find" was in the evening's papers. No one was more glad to see him than Ethel's father, who welcomed him like an old friend. That night he mused as he walked home: "I am no longer a stock-broker, I am engaged to Ethel, and I can still collect books. I am a fool; and I glory in it!"
THE FIFTEEN JOYS OF MARRIAGE
He was showing the distinguished guest through his magnificent library. He exhibited with pride his treasures, telling an interesting tale about this volume, and his merry adventures about that. In glass-covered exhibition cases were displayed some of his greater rarities and the colors of their morocco coverings gleamed and glowed in the light. At one end of the spacious room was a case with bronze mountings, and within reposed a volume bound in old olive levant, powdered with the bees and other devices so often used by Nicolas Eve, binder to his Majesty Francis the First. The visitor asked about the volume that was so superbly housed, and begged Mr. Henry Stirling to give its history.
"Pray examine it," he replied, taking the volume with the greatest care from the case. On its back, in letters of gold, mellowed by age, was its title: "Les Quinze Joyes de Mariage." "Ah, that is indeed rare!" exclaimed the visitor, "and its binding is marvelous. But hold, it is rubbed in one corner. Some vandal did that! It is a shame such a treasure should have been used so damnably!"
"It is for that reason, sir," Stirling replied, "that it is my most beloved volume. I value it above all the books in my library. This is its history:—