“Yes, and just look at his elergant sideboard. My! it must have cost a heap o’ money. Say, don’t you think them Carruths were just a little mite extravagant? Seems ter me they wouldn’t a been so put to it after Carruth’s death if they hadn’t a spent money fer such things as them. But I wonder what it’ll bring? ’Tis elergant, aint it? I’m just goin’ ter keep my eyes peeled, and maybe I c’n git it.”
“Why what in this world would you do with it if you did? You haven’t a room it would stand in,” cried the friend, looking first at the huge, old-fashioned, walnut sideboard, that Constance had called a Noah’s Ark, and then at its prospective purchaser as though she questioned her sanity.
“Yes, it is big, that’s so,” agreed that lady, “but it’s so elergant. Why it would give a real air to my dining-room, and I guess I could sell our table if both wouldn’t stand in the room. We could eat in the kitchen fer a spell, you know, till maybe Jim’s wagers were raised an’ we could go into a bigger house. Anyway I’m goin’ ter bid on it. It’s too big a chanst ter let slip.”
“Yes, it is pretty big,” replied her friend, turning away to hide a slight sneer, for she was a woman of discretion.
“Now, ladies and gentlemen,” called the auctioneer at that moment, “may I claim your attention for this most unusual sale; a sale of articles upon which you would never have had an opportunity to bid but for the ‘calamity at your heels’—to quote the immortal William.”
The people massed in front of him, for Riveredge had turned out en masse, started and glanced quickly over their shoulders. “But for the tragedy of them ashes these elegant articles of furniture would never have been placed on sale; your opportunity would never have been. Alas! ‘one man’s meat is ever another man’s poison.’ Now what am I offered for this roll of fine Japanese matting? Yards and yards of it as you see; all perfectly new; a rare opportunity to secure a most superior floor covering for a low figure. What am I bid, ladies and gentlemen?”
“One dollar,” ventured a voice.
“One dollar! Did I hear right? Surely not. One dollar for at least fifteen yards of perfectly new Japanese matting? Never. Who will do better ’n that? Two? Two—two—”
“Two-fifty!”
“Good, that’s better, but it’s a wicked sacrifice Come now—two-fifty—two-fifty—”