Mr Globestein conducted them into a further room, enriched like the other, and led them to a pedestal, on which stood a little marble figure of a girl, with a bird settled on her uplifted hand. They all stood silent by it for a while.
“Well, Dexter?” said Gilead presently.
“Unimpeachable,” answered the adviser; “and a first example.”
Mr Globestein laughed.
“You do me proud, Mr Dexter, sir,” he said, with a shadow of mockery in his voice. “I was really afraid you were going to impugn my judgment.”
The adviser came erect with a smile.
“Surely, Mr Globestein,” he said, “you should be the last to recommend the buying of a pig in a poke.”
“Enough, sir,” said Gilead. “Tell me, if you please, what is the price you ask for this?”
The dealer shrugged his shoulders slightly, and extended his hands.
“Pigalles,” he said, “are scarce and costly, Mr Balm. They rarely, very rarely occur. I could not, in justice to myself, ask a penny less than three thousand guineas.”