“But that fish picture makes a fine dinin’ room piece, especially if you could get the mate what is a brace of quails.”
“Oh well, rather than jew you down, I’ll take them, if you will take the trouble to make me out a receipt for the four.”
“Ain’t this a cash sale?” queried the man, wonderingly.
“Of course, but two of them are for friends. I only intend keeping the other two. I want them, to have the bill to show, you see.”
Thereupon Mr. Van Styne wrote out the bill on a scrap of paper and receipted it, and then counted the five one dollar bills Mrs. Fabian had paid him. “Ten per cent fer me and the rest for Sally,” he added as he rolled fifty cents inside four one dollar bills and pocketed the other fifty cents.
Mrs. Fabian was about to go for the pictures, when Polly came out. “I want to ask the auctioneer how much this little box and mirror are?” and she showed a lovely little Empire dressing-mirror to him. It was scratched and had been varnished, but its former beauty could be quickly restored, for the form and material were good as ever.
“I’m told that is a real antique. That piece come from the old Revere place, too. Mrs. Dolan says she heard it was used by the boy’s grandmother. But I don’t know what to charge.”
“I’ll give you ten dollars for it,” eagerly said Polly.
“Ten dollars!” gasped the man, sinking back in his desk-chair.
Mrs. Fabian tried to signal Polly, but the girl was too intent on securing the gem. Then Mrs. Fabian said to the man: