"Fifty cents," said Dorothy.
"Fifty cents! Do you mean to insult me, madame! Why, some old masters sell as high as fifty dollars, I can tell you! Who will bid higher?"
"One hundred dollars!" called out Delight, and the bronze statuette was declared her property.
Then other goods were put up, and, in order to make the play progress more quickly, two auctioneers were set to work, and King and Flip were both calling their wares and the bids at once.
Naturally, the bidders grew very excited. A large picture was hotly contested, Kitty bidding against Delight, while on the other block, the big inkstand was being sold. Somehow the wire of the picture became tangled round the auctioneer's foot, he stepped back and bumped into the other auctioneer who lost his balance, and fell over, inkstand and all. The heavy inkstand fell on the picture, breaking the glass, and soaking the paper engraving with ink. Much of the ink, too, went on Flip, who grabbed for it in a vain endeavor to save the situation.
The two boys laughingly straightened themselves out of their own mix up, but their laughter ceased when they saw that real damage had been done.
"Oh, dear!" said Marjorie, "this is a bad jinks after all!"
"Never mind, Mopsy," said King, magnanimously, "it wasn't your fault. It was mine."
"No, it was mine," said Midge, "for I proposed playing auction. I might have known we'd play it too hard."
"Never mind," said Kitty, "the company didn't have anything to do with the trouble, and we mustn't make them feel bad."