from Italian opera-off your chest which you've just been singing
to me, and you'll find it'll be all right. He isn't what you might call
one of my greatest admirers, but everybody says he's a square sort of
cove and he'll see you aren't snootered. And now, laddie, touching the
matter of that steak."

The waiter disappeared, greatly cheered, and Archie, turning, perceived
that his friend Reggie van Tuyl was entering the room. He waved to him
to join his table. He liked Reggie, and it also occurred to him that a
man of the world like the heir of the van Tuyls, who had been popping
about New York for years, might be able to give him some much-needed
information on the procedure at an auction sale, a matter on which he
himself was profoundly ignorant.

CHAPTER X. DOING FATHER A BIT OF GOOD

Reggie Van Tuyl approached the table languidly, and sank down into a
chair. He was a long youth with a rather subdued and deflated look,
as though the burden of the van Tuyl millions was more than his frail
strength could support. Most things tired him.

"I say, Reggie, old top," said Archie, "you're just the lad I wanted to
see. I require the assistance of a blighter of ripe intellect. Tell me,
laddie, do you know anything about sales?"

Reggie eyed him sleepily.

"Sales?"

"Auction sales."

Reggie considered.

"Well, they're sales, you know." He checked a yawn. "Auction sales, you
understand."

"Yes," said Archie encouragingly. "Something--the name or
something--seemed to tell me that."

"Fellows put things up for sale you know, and other fellows--other
fellows go in and--and buy 'em, if you follow me."

"Yes, but what's the procedure? I mean, what do I do? That's what I'm
after. I've got to buy something at Beale's this afternoon. How do I set
about it?"

"Well," said Reggie, drowsily, "there are several ways of bidding, you
know. You can shout, or you can nod, or you can twiddle your fingers--"
The effort of concentration was too much for him. He leaned back limply
in his chair. "I'll tell you what. I've nothing to do this afternoon.
I'll come with you and show you."

When he entered the Art Galleries a few minutes later, Archie was glad
of the moral support of even such a wobbly reed as Reggie van Tuyl.
There is something about an auction room which weighs heavily upon the
novice. The hushed interior was bathed in a dim, religious light; and
the congregation, seated on small wooden chairs, gazed in reveren