"Able to tell whether it's good or not?"
"Rather!"
"Care to take on a sort of a contract?" he demanded.
"If I can make anything out of it."
"How long have you been engaged in this work?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I answered.
He appeared satisfied with my replies, and, taking off his silk hat, explained his wants. He was a doctor and had to join the R.A.M.C. the following week. Before that date, he proposed to get married. The lady had remarked, in agreeing to the hasty procedure, that the drawing room and the dining room were to be set out with articles that possessed the quality of age; she drew the line at the accession of Queen Victoria.
"Now," he said, rapidly, "I've no time to go about searching here, there and everywhere, and, apart from that, I haven't the necessary knowledge. I may have hinted to her that I possess it, but as a matter of fact I don't know Chippendale from Wensleydale, or whatever they call the stuff."
"What is the limit, sir?"
"Two hundred and fifty," he said.