FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62  
63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   >>   >|  
can sell some of my things for me. And bring that blessed little girl--she's the dearest, sweetest thing I've seen for an age. Your daughter?" Felix laughed gently. "No, I wish she were. She is Mr. Kling's child." "And your name?" "O'Day." "Irish, of course--well, all the same, come down any morning this week. My name is Ganger; I'm on the fourth floor--been there twenty-two years. You'll have to walk up--we all do. Yes, I'll expect you." Kling, whom Felix consulted, began at once to demur. He knew all about the building on 10th Street. More than one of his old frames--part of the clearing-out sale of some Southern homestead, the portraits being reserved because unsalable--had resumed their careers on the walls of the Academy as guardians and protectors of masterpieces painted by the denizens of this same old rattletrap, the Studio Building. Some of its tenants, too, had had accounts with him--which had been running for more than a year. Bridley, the marine painter; Manners, who took pupils; Springlake, the landscapist; and half a dozen others had been in the habit of dropping into his shop on the lookout for something good in Dutch cabinets at half-price, or no price at all, until Felix, without knowing where they had come from, had put an end to the practice. "Got a fellow up to Kling's who looks as if he had been a college athlete, and knows it all. Can't fool him for a cent," was the talk now, instead of "Keep at the old Dutchman and you may get it. He don't know the difference between a Chippendale sideboard and a shelf rack from Harlem. Wait for a rainy day and go in. He'll be feeling blue, and you'll be sure to get it." Kling, therefore, when he heard some days later, of Felix's proposed visit, began turning over his books, looking up several past-due accounts. But Felix would have none of it. "I'm going on a collecting tour, Mr. Kling, this lovely June morning," he laughed, "but not for money. We will look after that later on. And I will take Masie. Come, child, get your hat. Mr. Ganger wanted you to come, and so do I. Call Hans, Mr. Kling, if the shop gets full. We will be back in an hour." "Vell, you know best," answered Kling in final surrender. "Ven it comes to money, I know. You go 'long, little Beesvings. I mind de shop." "And I'll take Fudge," the child cried, "and we'll stop at Gramercy Park." Fudge was out first, scampering down the street and back again before they had well cl
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62  
63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

accounts

 

Ganger

 

morning

 

laughed

 

sideboard

 

Harlem

 
feeling
 

Chippendale

 
college
 
athlete

fellow

 
practice
 
Dutchman
 

difference

 
surrender
 

answered

 
Beesvings
 

street

 
scampering
 

Gramercy


proposed

 
turning
 

wanted

 

collecting

 

lovely

 

expect

 

consulted

 

fourth

 

twenty

 

frames


clearing

 

Street

 

building

 
dearest
 
sweetest
 

blessed

 

things

 

daughter

 

gently

 

Southern


homestead

 

Springlake

 
pupils
 

landscapist

 
Manners
 
Bridley
 

marine

 
painter
 
dropping
 

knowing