"There's a new fashion come up lately," said Mrs. Mason as she walked along the corridor, "quite new:—of metallic furniture. I don't know whether you have seen any." Mrs. Green said she had not seen any as yet.
"The Patent Steel Furniture Company makes it, and it has got very greatly into vogue for small rooms. I thought that perhaps you would allow me to present you with a set for your drawing-room."
"I'm sure it is very kind of you to think of it," said Mrs. Green.
"Uncommonly so," said Mr. Green. But both Mr. Green and Mrs. Green knew the lady, and their hopes did not run high.
And then the door was opened and there stood the furniture to view. There stood the furniture, except the three subtracted chairs, and the loo table. The claw and leg of the table indeed were standing there, but the top was folded up and lying on the floor beside it. "I hope you'll like the pattern," began Mrs. Mason. "I'm told that it is the prettiest that has yet been brought out. There has been some little accident about the screw of the table, but the smith in the village will put that to rights in five minutes. He lives so close to you that I didn't think it worth while to have him up here."
"It's very nice," said Mrs. Green, looking round her almost in dismay.
"Very nice indeed," said Mr. Green, wondering in his mind for what purpose such utter trash could have been manufactured, and endeavouring to make up his mind as to what they might possibly do with it. Mr. Green knew what chairs and tables should be, and was well aware that the things before him were absolutely useless for any of the ordinary purposes of furniture.
"And they are the most convenient things in the world," said Mrs. Mason, "for when you are going to change house you pack them all up again in those boxes. Wooden furniture takes up so much room, and is so lumbersome."
"Yes, it is," said Mrs. Green.
"I'll have them all put up again and sent down in the cart to-morrow."