cing the large room was vacant,
and they sat down on it. Through the vista of the open door they could
see two of Alan's pictures. They sat in silence for a few minutes,
watching the crowd come and go in front of the pictures. She turned to
him at last with a little smile. "They are making a hit," she said.

"Be they?" He peered at them intently. His face softened. "They'd o't
to. They're nice picters."

"Yes." She had started forward a little, her breath coming swiftly. "Do
you see that man--the tall one with the gray hair and pointed beard?"

Uncle William adjusted his spectacles. "That kind o' peaked one, you
mean, that dips along some like a government lighter?"

She laughed out, her hands moving with little gestures of pleasure.
"That's the one. I know him."

"Do you?" Uncle William looked at him again politely. "He has a good
deal o' trimmin' on, but he looks like a nice sort o' man."

"He is--he is--if he's the one I think--"

The man, who wore on his coat the decoration of several orders, had
turned a little and was looking back over the crowd.

The girl clasped her hands tightly. "Oh, it _is_," she said under her
breath. "It is."

Uncle William looked down almost jealously. "You set a good deal o'
store by seein' him," he said.

"It isn't that. I like him, yes, but he knows good work. If he really
takes them in, he'll not let them go."

Uncle William adjusted his spectacles again. "You mean--"

"He will buy them, yes. Hush!" She held out her hand.

The man had turned back to the pictures. He lifted a pair of eyeglasses
that swung at the end of a long chain and placed them on his nose. He
looked again at the picture before him. The glasses dropped from his
nose, and he dipped to the catalogue he held in his hand.

Uncle William's glance followed him a little uneasily. "You mean he'll
buy my house?" he asked.

She nodded, her face overflowing with happiness.

Uncle William surveyed it. "I was cal'atin' to have that one myself." He
said it almost grudgingly.

"You were? Could you?" she faced him.

"Couldn't I have it as well as him?" He nodded toward the man in the
distance intent on his catalogue.

The girl's brow wrinkled a little. "He is rich," she said. "I didn't
know--"

"Well, I ain't rich," said Uncle William, "but I reckon I could scrape
together enough to pay for a picter."

The girl's face lighted. "Of course, Alan would rather you had it. And
he may buy one of the others."