The quality had been guaranteed, not the quantity!
CHAPTER III.
MT FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE AS AN AUCTIONEER.
The force of Circumstances— An infallible System—Led to Ruin—Getting Out of One Scrape into Another—A Lucky Escape.
In my lifetime I have played many parts, successfully and otherwise, but it was only on one occasion I officiated as an auctioneer. The circumstances connected with this position were too many for me, and I ascended the rostrum much against my inclination. The rostrum consisted of a small table, uncertain about the legs, with a worm-eaten desk upon it. It would have been a piece of good fortune if that shaky article of furniture had, like my friend's system of breaking the bank, broken down; but no surreptitious stamping would bring it to the ground.
Putting the best face I could upon the matter, and assuming the air of a Tattersall about to dispose of a two-thousand-guinea yearling, I proceeded to sell the various lots printed in the catalogue, making a few preliminary remarks to be in keeping with the style and manner of the Knightsbridge people.
But was I not an auctioneer? Not at all! That was the fun, or rather the difficulty of the thing. It was, however, a nasty scrape, and I was more than glad to see the last of Doncaster for that year. It was the infallible system of Peter Dodd which created the mischief.
"What on earth are you trying to do?" I asked him one day in the latter part of August, more years ago now than I care to remember. Ho was the sole occupant of the room, was Peter, when I entered, and seemed deeply engaged in playing roulette with himself and noting the results—the colour and the numbers—on a slate beside him.
"Studying how to make your fortune; and yet you sometimes doubt my friendship!" replied Mr. Dodd, continuing to spin the ball and add to the results on the slate.