“Me,” said Archie.
“How’s that?”
“I married your sister. My name’s Moffam.”
The young man seemed a trifle taken aback.
“Sorry,” he said.
“Not at all,” said Archie.
“I was only going by what my father said in his letters,” he explained, in extenuation.
Archie nodded.
“I’m afraid your jolly old father doesn’t appreciate me. But I’m hoping for the best. If I can rope in that rummy-looking little china thing that Jo-Jo the dog-faced boy is showing the customers, he will be all over me. I mean to say, you know, he’s got another like it, and, if he can get a full house, as it were, I’m given to understand he’ll be bucked, cheered, and even braced.”
The young man stared.
“Are YOU the fellow who’s been bidding against me?”
“Eh, what? Were you bidding against ME?”
“I wanted to buy the thing for my father. I’ve a special reason for wanting to get in right with him just now. Are you buying it for him, too?”
“Absolutely. As a surprise. It was Lucille’s idea. His valet, a chappie named Parker, tipped us off that the thing was to be sold.”
“Parker? Great Scot! It was Parker who tipped ME off. I met him on Broadway, and he told me about it.”
“Rummy he never mentioned it in his letter to me. Why, dash it, we could have got the thing for about two dollars if we had pooled our bids.”
“Well, we’d better pool them now, and extinguish that pill at the back there. I can’t go above eleven hundred. That’s all I’ve got.”
“I can’t go above eleven hundred myself.”
“There’s just one thing. I wish you’d let me be the one to hand the thing over to Father. I’ve a special reason for wanting to make a hit with him.”
“Absolutely!” said Archie, magnanimously. “It’s all the same to me. I only wanted to get him generally braced, as it were, if you know what I mean.”
“That’s awfully good of you.”
“Not a bit, laddie, no, no, and far from it. Only too glad.”
Willie had returned from his rambles among the connoisseurs, and Pongo’s brother was back on his pedestal. The high-priest cleared his throat and resumed his discourse.
“Now that you have all seen this superb figure we will–I was offered one thousand–one thousand-one-one-one-one–eleven hundred. Thank you, sir. Eleven hundred I am offered.”
The high-priest was now exuberant. You could see him doing figures in his head.
“You do the bidding,” said Brother Bill.
“Right-o!” said Archie.
He waved a defiant hand.
“Thirteen,” said the man at the back.
“Fourteen, dash it!”
“Fifteen!”
“Sixteen!”
“Seventeen!”
“Eighteen!”
“Nineteen!”
“Two thousand!”
The high-priest did everything but sing. He radiated good will and bonhomie.
“Two thousand I am offered. Is there any advance on two thousand? Come, gentlemen, I don’t want to give this superb figure away. Twenty-one hundred. Twenty-one-one-one-one. This is more the sort of thing I have been accustomed to. When I was at Sotheby’s Rooms in London, this kind of bidding was a common-place. Twenty-two-two-two- two-two. One hardly noticed it. Three-three-three. Twenty-three- three-three. Twenty-three hundred dollars I am offered.”
He gazed expectantly at Archie, as a man gazes at some favourite dog whom he calls upon to perform a trick. But Archie had reached the end of his tether. The hand that had twiddled so often and so bravely lay inert beside his trouser-leg, twitching feebly. Archie was through.
“Twenty-three hundred,” said the high-priest, ingratiatingly.
Archie made no movement. There was a tense pause. The high-priest gave a little sigh, like one waking from a beautiful dream.
“Twenty-three hundred,” he said. “Once twenty-three. Twice twenty- three. Third, last, and final call, twenty-three. Sold at twenty- three hundred. I congratulate you, sir, on a genuine bargain!”
Reggie van Tuyl had dozed off again. Archie tapped his brother-in- law on the shoulder.
“May as well be popping, what?”
They threaded their way sadly together through the crowd, and made for the street. They passed into Fifth Avenue without breaking the silence.
“Bally nuisance,” said Archie, at last.
“Rotten!”
“Wonder who that chappie was?”
“Some collector, probably.”
“Well, it can’t be helped,” said Archie.
Brother Bill attached himself to Archie’s arm, and became communicative.