"It's worth a damn sight more than that, Susie!"
Tomlin came to see it next day. He examined it carefully, with his sharp nose cocked at a critical angle. Finally, he said hesitatingly:
"Are you quite sure, Joe, that Angelica Kauffman painted them panels?"
"Just as sure, old man, as if I'd seen her at it."
Nevertheless, Tomlin's question rankled.
II
With many apologies, we present the reader to Messrs. Lark and Bundy, of Oxford Street. Gustavus Lark is probably the best known of the London art dealers. He is now an old man, and his sons and Bundy's sons manage an immense business. Ten years ago he had not retired. Criticism of him or his methods are irrelevant to this chronicle, but a side-light is thrown upon them when we consider how he treated Joe Quinney, a young man against whom he had no grudge whatever. Gustavus Lark heard, of course, that a Melchester dealer, newly settled in Soho Square, had bought a commode said to be painted by Angelica Kauffman for nine hundred pounds. Immediately he sent for his eldest son, a true chip of the old block.
"Why did we not hear of this?"
The son answered curtly:
"Because we can't hear of everything. There wasn't one big London dealer at the sale; and the only thing worth having was this commode."