He had formed some ideas of his own about framing. The prices mentioned by the frame-makers astonished him as much as those entered in the sale catalogue by the fond artists themselves. "No gilt for me. That's clear." He thought of a wide flat frame he had seen at the exhibition. "It was just a piece of plain boarding daubed over with some sort of gilt paint. It had a fish-net kind o' strung round it, I recollect."
"What was that for?" asked Melissa.
"It was a sea view, with boats and things. Seemed a pretty good notion to me."
"Why, yes."
"But there was one old codger come along who didn't seem to like it. Specs and white whiskers standing out. Lot of women with him. 'Well, I declare,' says he, 'what are we coming to? I can't understand how Mr. English could have let in such a thing as that!' He was going for the frame. I stepped over to the girl at the desk——"
"Seems to me you talked a good deal to that girl."
"Well, I did. She was from Ringgold County too, it turned out; hadn't been in town but six months. She was up to all sorts of dodges, though—knew the whole show like a book."
"Oh, she did, did she?"
"Well, she wasn't so very young, nor so very good-looking, if that's what you're after."
"Oh, she wasn't, wasn't she?" said Melissa, somewhat mollified.