re! Now what is your price
for these eight fine pieces,--look 'em over and bid accordingly."

"Thirty shillings!" Again from the depths of the crowd.

"Ha! ha!--you joke sir!" laughed the Auctioneer, rubbing his hands in
his most jovial manner, "you joke! I can't see you, but you joke of
course, and I laugh accordingly, ha! ha! Thirty shillings for eight,
fine, antique, tapestried, hand-carved chairs,--Oh very
good,--excellent, upon my soul!"

"Three pound!" said the fiery-necked Corn-chandler.

"Guineas!" said the rat-eyed Parsons.

"Four pound!" nodded the Corn-chandler.

"Four pound ten!" roared Adam.

"Five!" nodded Grimes, edging away from Adam's elbow.

"Six pound ten!" cried Adam.

"Seven!"--from Parsons.

"Eight!" said Grimes.

"Ten!" roared Adam, growing desperate.

"Eleven!" said Grimes, beginning to mop at his neck again.

Adam hesitated; eleven pounds seemed so very much for those chairs, that
he had seen Prudence and the rosy-cheeked maids dust regularly every
morning, and then,--it was not his money, after all. Therefore Adam
hesitated, and glanced wistfully towards a certain distant corner.

"At eleven,--at eleven pounds!--this fine suite of hand-carved antique
chairs, at eleven pounds!--at eleven!--at eleven, going--going!--"

"Fifteen!" said a voice from the distant corner; whereupon Adam drew a
great sigh of relief, while the Corn-chandler contorted himself in his
efforts to glare at Bellew round the side-board.

"Fifteen pounds!" chanted the Auctioneer, "I have fifteen,--I am given
fifteen,--any advance? These eight antique chairs, going at
fifteen!--going! for the last time,--going!--gone! Sold to the gentleman
in the corner behind the side-board, Theodore."

"They were certainly fine chairs, Mr. Grimes!" said Parsons shaking his
head.

"So so!" said the Corn-chandler, sitting down heavily, "So so, Parsons!"
and he turned to glare at Bellew, who, lying back in an easy chair with
his legs upon another, puffed at his pipe, and regarded all things with
a placid interest.

It is not intended to record in these pages all the bids that were made
as the afternoon advanced, for that would be fatiguing to write, and a
weariness to read; suffice it that lots were put up, and regularly
knocked down but always to Bellew, or Adam. Which last, encouraged by
Bellew's bold advances, gaily roared down, and constantly out-bid all
competitors with such unhesitating pertinacity, that murmurs rose