“New! Oh, no—they’re so old they’re very valuable.”
“Yes. H’m. Yes.”
“I need all you can possibly get me for them, Mr. Simonson.”
“I’ll examine them thoroughly, Miss Mar, and let you know.”
As she went out, there was Bella coming down the street. Acting on an impulse, Hildegarde turned off the main thoroughfare, pretending not to see. But it made her heart sore to think, “Bella in Valdivia, and not with us! I not even to know!”
Miss Wayne went into the familiar Simonson’s. “Was that Miss Mar who was here a moment ago?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, is it broken? That’s the necklace I got for her in Rome.”
“No, not broken. I suppose you don’t remember what you gave for it?”
Miss Bella put on her most beguiling air, and took the old man into her confidence. She would buy the things herself and pay him a commission, and he was not to say but what a San Francisco dealer had made the two-hundred-dollar offer.