"The Baron? What Baron? I don't understand you. I saw the picture last summer in Paris, was struck with it like everybody else, and offered Angelo £4,000 for it."
"Which offer he accepted?" said my uncle.
"Which offer he accepted—after a delay of a day or two."
"You purchased it direct from Angelo?" said I.
"Direct."
"Strange!"
"What is there so strange in the transaction?"
"Do you know," I said, "that when we saw Angelo at Rivoli, and expressed a desire—or, to be more correct, when Daphne expressed a desire to see his picture, he told her it was impossible—he had sold it to some Spanish hidalgo."
"He must have been dreaming, then," returned Sir Hugh. "I was the first purchaser and the last."